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BL  1031  .B3  1899 
Barrows,  John  Henry,  1847- 
1902. 

The  Christian  conquest  of 
Asia 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST 

OF  ASIA 


tffcorse  Xectures 

1893— THE  PLACE  OF  CHRIST  IN  MODERN 
THEOLOGY.  By  Rev.  A.  M.  Fairbairn, 
D.D.     8vo,  $2.50. 

1894-THE    RELIGIONS    OF   JAPAN.      By  Rev. 
William  Elliot  Griffis,  D.D.     12mo,  $2.00. 

1895— THE  WHENCE  AND  THE  WHITHER  OF 
MAN.  By  Professor  John  M.  Tyler. 
12mo,  $1.75. 

1898— THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA. 
By  Rev.  John  Henry  Barrows,  D.D. 
12mo,  $1.50. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   CONQUEST 

OF  ASIA 


STUDIES  AND   PERSONAL   OBSERVATIONS   OF 
ORIENTAL  RELIGIONS 


JQeiw  the  flsotee  TLcctmee  ol  1 80S 


BY 

JOHN  HENKY  BAKKOWS,  D.D. 

PRESIDENT  OF  OBERLIN  COLLEGE  ;   HASKELL  LECTURER  ON  COMPARATIVE 
RELIGION,  UNIVERSITY  OF   CHICAGO;   BARROWS  LECTURER  FOR 
INDIA   AND    JAPAN,    189G-97 ;    AUTHOR  OF   "CHRIS- 
TIANITY,  THE  WORLD-RELIGION,"   ETC. 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

1899 


COPYRIGHT,  1899,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


TROW   DIRECTORY 

PRINTING  AND   BOOKBINDING  COMPANY 

NEW   YORK 


Go 

Rev.   K.  S.   MACDONALD,   D.D. 

OF  CALCUTTA 

THE   EXPERIENCED  MISSIONARY,   TRUSTED  COUNSELLOR 

BROAD-MINDED  CHRISTIAN  AND  FAITHFUL  FRIEND 

I  DEDICATE  THIS  VOLUME  WITH  HArPY 

AND  GRATEFUL  MEMORIES 

OF   INDIA 


PREFACE 

The  Christian  Conquest  of  Asia  began  with  tho  com- 
ing of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  first  proclamation  of  Bis 
Gospel,  but  the  great  continent  has  not  been  tho  chief 
arena  for  the  working  of  the  Christian  forces  which  the 
world's  Saviour  set  in  motion.  Christianity,  which 
made  such  rapid  conquests  in  Asia  Minor,  becan 
stereotyped  dogmatically  and  ecclesiastically;  its  mis- 
sionary energies  were  dried  up,  and  after  a  few  centuries 
it  came  into  conflict  with  the  more  aggressive  monothe- 
ism of  Islam.  The  last  hundred  years  have  witnessed 
the  efforts  of  the  purer  and  more  life-giving  Christian- 
ity of  Europe  and  America  to  re-enter  the  wide  Asiatic 
world.  India,  China  and  Japan  had,  at  various  times, 
been  fields  for  missionary  activities,  but  those  efforts 
were  sporadic,  were  often  unspiritual,  and  sometimes 
were  almost  completely  stamped  out.  Since  the  fourth, 
and  possibly  an  earlier  century,  there  has  been  a  Chris- 
tian church  in  India,  but  it  never  possessed  the  elements 
needed  to  grapple  with  the  various  strong  and  ancient 
systems  of  non-Christian  faith. 

Until  Protestant  missionary  work,  with  its  schools, 
its  hospitals,  its  purer  ideals  and  its  aggressive  energy, 
made  its  way  into  Western  Asia,  and  into  the  lands  of 
the  East  and  Far  East,  the  Asiatic  world  may  almost  1 
said  to  have  missed  any  accurate  knowledge  of  that 
apostolic  type  of  the  Christian  religion  which  is  pure 


X  PREFACE 

and  vigorous  enough  to  command  the  world's  future. 
The  results  already  achieved,  not  only  in  the  making  of 
converts,  but  particularly  in  the  improvement  of  social 
conditions,  the  lifting  up  of  new  ideals,  the  removal  of 
gross  abominations,  and  the  purifying  and  energizing 
of  the  non- Christian  systems,  have  been  such  that  no 
Christian,  widely  and  accurately  acquainted  with  these 
early  victories,  is  justified  in  a  pessimistic  outlook  into 
the  Christian  future  of  Asia. 

The  Christian  literature  which  vindicates  Christian 
optimism  in  regard  to  Asia  is  encyclopedic,  and  should 
enter  into  the  minds  of  millions  in  Europe  and  America 
who  are  now  ignorant  and  indifferent.  Asiatic  Chris- 
tians themselves  are  recognizing  their  opportunity  and 
responsibility,  and  are  coming,  through  the  agency  of 
daring  Western  enterprise  like  that  represented  by  the 
Students'  Volunteer  Movement,  into  a  spiritual  fed- 
eration. What  are  yet  to  become  national  churches, 
perhaps  not  in  the  European  sense,  but  in  a  deeper 
and  truer  sense,  are  beginning  to  emerge  in  India  and 
Japan. 

The  following  lectures  will  make  it  plain  that  I  do 
not  cherish  any  expectations  of  the  swift  evangelization 
of  countries  where  such  proud  and  tough-fibred  relig- 
ions as  Mohammedanism,  Hinduism,  Buddhism  and 
Confucianism  have  long  held  sway ;  but  there  are  many 
evidences  that  the  East  is  being  penetrated  by  Western 
thought,  is  coming  into  fellowship  with  the  Western 
Christian  spirit  of  brotherhood,  and,  when  Christendom 
is  more  thoroughly  unified  and  Christianized,  and  pur- 
sues its  aggressive  missionary  work  with  more  wisdom 
and  sympathy,  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  acceptance  of 
the  Christian  Gospel  will  be  far  more  wide  and  rapid. 


PREFACE  xi 

National  isolation  lias  given  way  in  the  last  half  cen- 
tury to  a  commercial  cosmopolitanism  ;  not  only  (it 
Britain,  but  also  Kussia,  Germany,  Franco  and  the 
United  States  are  compelled  to  have  regard  for  the  life 
of  distant  peoples.  America,  perhaps  the  chief  com- 
mercial, political  and  moral  power  of  the  second  half  of 
the  twentieth  century,  has  been  providentially  forced 
out  of  its  sluggish  self-satisfaction  into  vitally  intimate 
connection  with  the  world  of  Asia.  The  echoes  of 
Admiral  Dewey's  artillery  from  the  harbor  of  Manila 
have  brought  the  Asiatic  peoples  seven  thousand  miles 
nearer  to  many  Americans  than  ever  before.  Tho 
United  States  possesses  at  the  present  hour  stepping- 
stones  for  its  commercial  and  moral  pathway  across  tho 
Pacific.  The  peoples  of  Asia,  the  Chinese  and  Japanese 
and  Hindus,  with  whom  America  will  be  brought  into 
closest  relations,  represent,  not  only  half  tho  human 
race,  but  also  very  much  of  the  intellectual  and  mora] 
possibilities  of  the  future.  If  the  Chinese  Empire  is  to 
undergo  dismemberment  American  sympathies  will  go 
out  to  those  European  nations  participating  therein, 
which  represent  popular  education,  open  commerce, 
even-handed  justice  and  a  true  toleration. 

I  deem  it  very  fortunate  that  these  lectures  go  to  tli«" 
public  at  a  time  when  the  American  mind,  I  may  add, 
the  Christian  mind  generally,  is  more  open  than  ever 
before  to  the  vast  possibilities  of  the  Asiatic  people. 
One  result  of  the  international  Religious  Congress,  held 
in  Chicago  in  1893,  has  undoubtedly  been  that  tho  re- 
ligious systems  of  the  Orient  are  more  real,  less  vague, 
and  remote  to  the  minds  of  western  peoples.  We  have 
come  to  a  truer  appreciation  of  tho  good,  as  well  as  of 
the  evil,  inherent  in  those  faiths;  we  realize  that  it  1. 


xii  PREFACE 

no  holiday  task  to  supplant  them  with  something  better ; 
we  perceive  that  one  of  the  best  missionary  agencies  in 
the  Orient,  is  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  Christian 
sympathy;  we  are  learning  that  our  western  theologies 
cannot  be  bodily  transplanted  into  the  soil  of  the  Asiatic 
mind  ;  we  are  discovering  that  our  missionaries  should 
have  the  amplest  possible  equipment  for  their  glorious 
work,  and  we  are  seeing  clearly  that  one  of  the  chief 
hinderances  to  Christian  expansion  in  Asia,  is  the  im- 
perfect, and  sometimes  thoroughly  evil  character  of 
those  nominal  Christians,  in  the  cities  of  Asia,  from 
whom  India,  China  and  Japan  get  their  strongest  im- 
pressions of  what  Christianity  really  is. 

Since  my  return  from  the  East  and  Far  East  in  May, 
1897, 1  have  delivered  more  than  two  hundred  addresses 
in  various  parts  of  the  country,  in  which  I  have  set 
forth  some  of  the  impressions  and  conclusions  which 
are  found  in  this  volume.  These  lectures  were  on  the 
Morse  Foundation  of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary, 
New  York,  and  were  delivered  in  the  Adams  Chapel  in 
the  winter  of  1898.  I  desire  here,  gratefully,  to  acknowl- 
edge the  very  kind  reception  accorded  me  by  President 
Charles  Cuthbert  Hall  and  the  other  officers  of  the 
Seminary.  The  present  book  is  a  supplement  to  my 
previous  works,  "  The  History  of  the  World's  Parliament 
of  Keligions,"  "  Christianity  the  World — Keligion,"  and 
a  volume  of  travels  called  "  The  World  Pilgrimage." 
My  own  spirit  has  been  refreshed  and  I  trust  widened 
by  what  I  have  seen  and  learned  in  the  last  five  years, 
and  my  own  faith  in  the  possibilities  of  the  Gospel,  as 
interpreted  by  modern  evangelical  scholarship,  has  been 
greatly  strengthened. 

This  volume  may  be  deemed  the  literary  completion 


PREFACE  nii 

of  my  connection  with  the  Parliament  of  Religion 
connection  which  began  in  1891,  with  my  appointment 
as  Chairman  of  the  General  Committee  on  Religions 
Congresses  for  the  Columbian  Exposition.     This   ap- 
pointment was  made  by  the  Hon.  Charles  C.  Bum 
LL.D.,  the  originator  and  president  of  the  whole  series 
of  world-meetings.     It  is  a  pleasure  to  close  these  pref- 
atory words,  with  a  renewed  expression  of  my  appre- 
ciation of  the  great  service  which  President   Bounty 
has  rendered  to  human  enlightenment,  and  of  my  d 
admiration  for  the  comprehensive  wisdom  and  ability 
with  which  he  conceived  and  carried  out  the  ineinoraUo 
series  of  "World  Congresses,  which  were  the  crowning 
glory  of  the  Exposition. 

John  Henry  Barrows. 

Oberlin,  Ohio,  January  7,  1899. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  I 

FAOK 

Beginning  at  Jerusalem;  or,  Christianity  and 
Judaism 1 

Asia,  the  continent  of  diversities. — Christianity  Asiatic. — Pounded  on  the 
older  Judaism. — Early  Christian  conquests  carried  forward  by  the  Jews. — 
Ubiquity  of  the  Jew  in  Asia  and  in  History. — Israel,  the  supreme  Evidence 
of  Christianity. — Reasons  for  entering  the  Asiatic  world  by  the  gate  of 
Jerusalem. — Intimacies  of  Judaism  and  Christianity. — Four  chief  facts  in 
Jewish  history:  (1)  A  Chosen  Nation  ;  (2)  A  Separated  People;  (3)  A  Suf- 
fering People;  (4)  The  Messianic  People. — Contrasts  of  Judaism  with 
Christianity. — The  Cross,  a  stumbling-block  to  the  Jew,  the  symbol  of  a 
world-conquering  Faith. 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Cross  and  the  Crescent  in  Asia 27 

Prevalence  and  dominance  of  Islam  in  the  Orient. — The  Turk  and  Isliim. 
— Ameer  Ali's  defence  of  Turkish  atrocities.— A  wide  survey  of  Moham- 
medanism.— Connections  with  the  Bible. — Pore  Hyacinthe's  eulogy  of  Is- 
lam.— Rise  of  Mohammedanism. — Life  and  character  of  the  Prophet. — De- 
generacy of  Mohammed's  later  years. — His  fundamental  truth. — Conquests 
of  the  Crescent. — The  Koran  and  the  Bible. — Strength  of  Isliim. — Sins  of 
Christendom. — Jesus  and  Mohammed. — Perfection  of  the  Christianity  of 
Christ. — Islamic  reform  impossible. — Methods  of  reaching  Mohammedans. 
— Future  of  Mohammedan  Asia. 

CHAPTER  III 
Observations  of  Popular  Hinduism 60 

Travel  and  Christian  work  in  India. — Some  general  features  of  Hinduism. 
— National  Indian  Congress. — Religion  external  and  universal. — Idolatry  m 
Benares. — Excuses  for  idolatry. — Conference  in  Madras. — A  land  of  cuntra- 

xv 


XVi  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

dictions. — The  mania  for  Hinduizing  truth. — Degradation  of  Womanhood. — 
Hindu  credulity. — Value  of  skepticism. — Caste. — Degeneration. — Modern 
Hinduism  a  Dead  Sea. 

CHAPTER  IV 

PAGE 

Philosophic  Hinduism 92 

Not  a  study  of  Hindu  systems  of  Philosophy. — An  attempt  to  understand 
the  Hindu  mind. — Natural  features  of  India. — The  brilliant  and  varied 
world  of  Hindustan. — Max  Miiller  on  early  Aryan  ideas. — Central  thought 
of  Hinduism. — Pantheism. — Ceremonialism. — Tolerance  and  intolerance. — 
Philosophic  Hinduism  and  the  Popular  Religion. — Noble  elements. — Mission 
of  the  Brahmam. — Sacredness  of  caste. — The  Maharajah  of  Travancore. — 
Contrasts  with  Christianity. — Hindu  intellect  over-praised. — Weakness  of 
will. — Incarnations. — Need  of  Christian  education. — Value  of  discrimination 
and  kindness. 

CHAPTER  V 

Some  Difficulties  in  the  Hindu  Mind  in  Re- 
gard to  Christianity 122 

Fundamental  ideas  in  the  Orient  different  from  prevailing  Western  be- 
liefs.— Importance  of  showing  what  Christianity  is  and  is  not. — Evasiveness 
of  the  Hindu  spirit. — Sophistical  questions. — The  historic  Christ  and  Salva- 
tion.— Why  only  one  Saviour? — Hindu  and  American  religiousness. — Is  the 
latest  Faith  the  best? — Why  a  Mediator?— Origin  of  evil. — Karma. — Chris- 
tianity and  a  sound  Philosophy. — Progress  of  Buddhism  and  Christianity. — 
The  simple  life  of  India. — Does  Christianity  provide  for  Salvation  of  all? — 
Success  and  failure  of  the  Brahmo  Somaj. — Type  of  Christianity  needed  in 
India. 

CHAPTER  VI 
Christianity  and  Buddhism 150 

Observations  in  Ceylon. — Buddhism  cast  out  of  India.— Dharmapala. — 
Nature  in  Ceylon. — Variety  and  extent  of  Buddhism. — Meagre  information 
about  Buddha. — The  story  of  his  life. — His  enlightenment. — His  success. — 
Contrasts  with  Jesus. — Death  of  Buddha. — Contrasts  of  Buddhism  and  the 
Christian  Gospel. — God. — Forgiveness  of  sins. — Prayer. — The  Law  of  Kar- 
ma.— Nirvana  and  the  Scriptures. — Strength  and  glory  of  Buddhism. — 
Weakness. — Progress  in  Buddhist  Lands. — Observations  in  Japan. — Fail- 
ures of  Buddhism. — The  wise  methods  of  Christian  Missions. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xvii 


CHAPTER  VII 

Confucianism  and  the  Awakening  of  China    .    .182 


TAOK 


Skirting  the  coasts  of  China. — Entering  the  realms  of  Prose. — Contrasts 
of  China  and  Japan. — Greatness  of  the  Celestial  Empire. — Li  Hung  Chang 
and  official  corruption. — Government  based  on  education. — Stereotyped  Civ- 
ilization.— Endless  imitation. — Hon.  Pung  Quang  Yu  at  the  Parliament  of 
Religions. — Story  of  Confucius. — Taoism. — Influence  of  Buddhism  in  China. 
— Greatness  of  Confucius. — His  ethics  and  ideals. — Defects. — Patriarchal 
government  a  failure. — Cruelty. — Changes  in  China. — Christian  Missions. — 
Obstacles. — Need  of  knowing  the  true  King  of  Heaven. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Success  of  Asiatic  Missions;  America's  Respon- 
sibility to  the  Orient 222 

A  World-trip  and  faith  in  Christ's  universal  mission. — Causes  of  skepti- 
cism in  America. — Observations  in  Japan. — Purposes  of  the  Indian  Lecture- 
ship.— Experiences  in  India. — Variety  and  effectiveness  of  Christian  Mis- 
sions in  Asia. — Spirit  of  the  Missionaries. — Modern  Heroes.  Not  Ascetics. 
— American  Christianity. — Resources  of  the  Republic. — Argument  for  hope. 
— Most  beautiful  sight  in  Asia. — America's  responsibility  to  Asia. — Contrast 
of  America  with  European  Powers. — Only  a  beginning. — New  visions  of  the 
glory  and  triumph  of  Christianity. 

Index 253 


CHAPTEK  I 

BEGINNING    AT    JERUSALEM  ;     OR,    CHRISTIANITY     AND     JU- 
DAISM 

Close  by  Lily  Cottage,  Calcutta,  the  home  of  Kes- 
hub  Chimder  Sen,  is  his  grave.  The  eclecticism  of  this 
remarkable  man,  whose  body  was  burned  and  buried, 
is  indicated  not  only  by  the  four  languages  which  are 
written  upon  his  marble  monument,  but  also  by  the 
symbol  carved  at  the  summit  of  this  monumental  stone. 
It  is  a  combination  of  the  trident,  the  crescent  and  the 
cross.  As,  a  little  more  than  a  year  ago,  I  stood  by  the 
grave  of  this  most  famous  of  modern  Hindu  prophets, 
I  could  not  but  realize  anew  that  Asia  is  the  mother  and 
home  of  many  religions,  and  that  the  effort  of  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen  to  give  to  the  term  "Asiatic"  definiteness 
of  meaning,  was  somewhat  misleading.  From  Asia 
have  sprung  not  only  Christianity,  but  also  Parsiism, 
Judaism,  Hinduism,  Buddhism,  Confucianism,  Tauism, 
Shintoism,  Mohammedanism,  Sikhism,  and  many  of  the 
varieties  of  these  multitudinous  faiths.  Some  modern 
Hindu  reformers  have  contrasted  Asiatic  mysticism 
with  European  science ;  Asiatic  mildness  with  Euro- 
pean ferocity  ;  Asiatic  unworldliness  with  European 
impiety,  and  thus  have  made  out  for  themselves  and 
others  a  misleading  picture.  Asia  does  not  possess  the 
spiritual  unity  which  belongs  to  the  nations  of  west- 
ern Christendom.     These  are  in  a  measure  unified  by 

1 


2  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Christianity,  the  Graeco-Ronian  civilization  and  modern 
science.  There  is  a  common  set  of  ideas  belonging  to 
peoples  as  remote  and  diverse  from  one  another  as  Rus- 
sia and  the  United  States.  They  all  trace  their  spirit- 
ual origin  back  through  Rome  and  Greece  to  Palestine 
and  the  ancient  land  of  the  Nile,  and  they  all  feel  with 
Bunsen  that  history  was  born  on  the  night  when  Moses 
led  Israel  out  of  Egypt.  On  them  falls  the  splendor  of 
Sinai  and  Calvary.  To  them  have  come  the  poetry  and 
philosophy  of  ancient  Athens,  and  with  them  Rome 
and  Constantinople  are  starting-points  and  turning- 
points  of  historic  development.  But  Asia  is  the  con- 
tinent of  diversities  and  separations.  The  Moslem 
world,  which  reaches  from  the  Bosporus  to  the  China 
Sea,  may  be  regarded  as  an  offshoot  either  of  Judaism 
or  of  Christianity ;  at  least,  it  has  no  affiliations  with 
polytheistic  Hinduism  or  agnostic  Buddhism.  The  Jap- 
anese are  Asiatics,  and  are  the  most  progressive  of  ori- 
ental peoples,  covetous  of  at  least  the  external  elements 
of  modern  civilization.  The  Chinese  are  Asiatics,  and 
they  are  the  most  conservative  and  unspiritual  of  na- 
tions. The  Siberians  are  Asiatics,  faintly  European- 
ized  and  Christianized.  The  Buddhists,  scattered  or  con- 
centrated in  many  lands  of  the  East,  are  distinctively 
Asiatic.  The  Hindus  are  Asiatics,  and  they  are  the 
most  religious  and  deeply  fallen  of  nationalities.  The 
Jews  are  Asiatics,  and  they  are  found  in  almost  every 
part  of  the  great  continent,  building  their  synagogues 
and  suffering  persecution  in  Arabia,  unrolling  their  sa- 
cred scrolls  in  Peking,  writing  the  vernaculars  of  Persia 
in  Hebrew  characters,  busy  in  the  trading  centres  of 
the  eastern  and  western  coasts  of  India,  found  here  and 
there  in  Asiatic  Russia,  gathering  in  rapidly  increasing 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  3 

numbers  in  their  ancient  capital,  Jerusalem.  If  the 
most  populous  of  continents  ever  attains  even  to  the 
measure  of  the  spiritual  unity  which  belongs  to  Western 
Christendom,  it  can  only  be  through  the  reception  by 
its  millions  of  a  common  faith.  That  faith  cannot  be 
Buddhism  which  India  cast  out ;  it  cannot  be  the  na- 
tional cults  of  China  and  Japan ;  it  cannot  be  the 
Hinduism  which  is  confined  between  the  Himalava 
Mountains,  the  Gulf  of  Bengal,  and  the  Arabian  Sea  ;  it 
cannot  be  the  Judaism  which  is  not  hungry  to  extend 
itself  into  other  races ;  it  can  only  be,  as  I  am  more 
deeply  convinced  after  the  studies  and  observations  of 
the  last  two  years,  that  Christianity,  whose  teaching  of 
divine  Fatherhood  and  universal  Brotherhood  has  been 
made  vigorous  and  victorious  through  Jesus  Christ. 

The  title  of  this  course  of  lectures,  "  The  Christian 
Conquest  of  Asia,"  suggests  something  of  history  and 
more  of  confident  expectation.  The  theme  for  the  lect- 
ure to-night,  "  Christianity  and  Judaism,"  has  not  been 
chosen  because  of  any  remarkable  recent  conquests 
made  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ  over  the  people  of  Israel 
now  dwelling  in  Asia,  but  for  quite  other  reasons. 
Christianity  itself  is,  in  origin,  Asiatic.  Its  first  dis- 
ciples and  its  earliest  victories  were  Asiatic,  and  it 
seems  appropriate  that  I  should  begin  this  series  of  ad- 
dresses from  the  standpoint  of  Jerusalem,  and  that  I 
should  recall  the  connection  of  Christianity  with  the 
more  ancient  Judaism.  The  behavior  of  Christendom 
toward  the  Jewish  nationality  is  a  striking  illustration 
of  how  Christianity  should  not  proceed  in  its  treat- 
ment of  other  Asiatic  peoples  and  faiths.  But,  although 
the  Gospel  of  Christ  may  be  said  to  have  made  feeble 
inroads   into  the  ranks  of   Asiatic   Israel,  two  things 


4  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

should  not  be  forgotten.  The  first  is  this :  That  the 
Jew,  Christianized,  conquered  for  the  Gospel  of  the 
Nazarene  Prophet,  the  ancient  world  represented  by 
Athens  and  Rome  and  the  cities  of  western  Asia,  a  fact 
which  is  surely  not  without  significance  to  those  who 
believe  in  the  ultimate  conversion  of  the  Jews  and  their 
future  importance  to  the  growing  kingdom  of  Christ- 
But  the  second  fact  is  this  :  That  Israel  furnishes  the 
Christian  a  main  argument  for  his  belief  in  Jesus  Christ 
— amain  evidence  of  the  special  divine  revelation  con- 
tained in  the  Scriptures,  and  a  chief  assurance  that  the 
law  and  the  Gospel  which  went  forth  from  Jerusalem 
are  to  have  ultimate  dominion,  not  only  over  Asia,  but 
over  all  the  earth,  that  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's 
house  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills  and  all  nations 
shall  flow  into  it. 

In  speaking  at  this  time  of  Israel,  I  do  not  fail  to  re- 
member that  Judaism  is  Christianity  in  the  bud.  "We 
may  rightly  speak  of  it  as  a  plant  of  righteousness  and 
renown  still  lacking  the  bright,  consummate  flower. 
Judaism  is  Christianity  without  its  diadem,  without 
the  world-conquering  purpose,  mission,  energy,  and  re- 
demptive power  which  Christ,  the  greatest  of  all  Jews 
and  the  glory  of  Israel,  has  given  to  His  church. 

I  feel  profoundly  that  we  can  properly  enter  the  vast 
world  of  Asia,  so  full  of  conflict  and  suffering  and  spirit- 
ual possibilities  most  appropriately  through  the  gate- 
way, above  which  is  emblazoned  the  name  of  the  most 
influential  of  Asiatic  peoples,  Israel.  The  late  James 
Darmsteter  of  Paris  has  said  that  "  the  historian's  spe- 
cial interest  in  the  Jewish  nation  is  due  to  its  being  the 
only  one  that  is  met  with  at  every  turn  of  history." 
(James  Darmsteter,  "  Selected  Essays,"  p.  241.)    As 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  5 

one  cannot  go  to  India,  to  China,  to  Arabia — or  even  to 
such  remote  countries  or  cities  as  Bokhara  and  Samar- 
kand, without  finding  colonies  of  Jews,  so  one  cannot 
open  the  great  volumes  of  history — Persian,  Indian, 
Arabian,  Egyptian,  Phoenician,  Greek,  Roman,  or  mod- 
ern European  without  striking  the  Jew.  But  it  is  not 
only  the  historical  ubiquity  of  Israel  which  gives  him 
an  especial  interest,  but  also  the  fact  that  he  has  molded 
history  on  its  spiritual  side.  Of  the  Jewish  people  it 
has  been  said  :  "  Twice  it  remodelled  the  world — the 
European  world  through  Jesus ;  the  Oriental  world 
through  Islam — not  to  speak  of  the  influence,  slower  and 
more  hidden,  but  none  the  less  powerful,  nor  perhaps 
less  lasting,  that  it  exercised  in  the  Middle  Ages  upon 
the  formation  of  modern  thought."  (James  Darmsteter, 
"  Selected  Essays,"  p.  243.) 

We  may  have  imagined  that  we  understood  the  Jew 
a  generation  ago,  but  the  chief  researches  of  later  schol- 
arship have  been  illumining  with  new  light  the  three 
great  periods  of  his  history;  the  first  extending  from  the 
origin  of  Judaism  to  the  return  from  the  Exile,  the  sec- 
ond from  the  return  from  the  Exile  to  the  Dispersion, 
and  the  third  from  the  Dispersion  to  the  French  Revo- 
lution. To  understand  the  first  period  scholars  are  dil- 
igently working  at  the  Hebrew  literature,  which  we  call 
the  Old  Testament,  and  at  the  new  sciences,  Assyriology, 
Egyptology  and  Phoenician  Epigraphy,  which  were 
born  but  yesterday.  To  understand  the  second  period 
the  Talmud  is  being  explored,  as  scientists  have  ex- 
plored the  sea,  and  as  travellers  have  pierced  the  inter- 
minable wilds  and  recesses  of  Central  Asia.  To  under- 
stand the  third  period,  men  have  been  unearthing  the 
buried  records  in  European  libraries. 


6  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

The  more  we  know  of  hini  the  more  we  are  fascinated 
and  astonished  by  the  Jew,  from  whose  face  we  cannot 
escape  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  mosques  in  Bombay, 
or  of  the  Temple  of  Heaven  in  Peking.  He  comes  to 
have  for  us  the  interest  that  he  had  in  the  seventeenth 
century  for  Rembrandt  in  the  streets  of  Amsterdam. 
Yet  he  is  far  more  than  a  picture.  To  the  Christian  he 
is  the  ever-living  evidence  of  God's  power  and  directing 
providence  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  Jewish  re- 
ligion we  have  come  to  look  upon  as  the  preparation  for 
Christianity.  "  Wherever,"  it  has  been  said,  "  the  apos- 
tles of  Christ  went  they  found  that  Judaism  had  pre- 
pared the  way.  Usually  in  every  place  they  first  preached 
to  the  Jews  and  made  converts  of  them ;  for  Judaism, 
though  so  narrow  and  so  alien  to  the  Greek  and  Latin 
thought,  had  nevertheless  pervaded  all  parts  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  Despised  and  satirized  by  the  philoso- 
phers and  poets,  it  had  yet  won  its  way  by  its  strength 
and  conviction.  It  offered  to  men,  not  a  philosophy, 
but  a  religion  ;  not  thought,  but  life.  Too  intolerant  of 
differences  to  convert  the  world  to  monotheism,  it  yet 
made  a  preparation  for  its  conversion.  This  was  its 
power,  and  thus  it  went  before  the  face  of  the  Master  to 
prepare  his  way."  (Clark's  "  Ten  Great  Religions," 
p.  447.) 

The  spirit  and  ideas  of  Judaism  have,  to  a  certain 
extent,  entered  into  the  creed  and  practices  of  Islam, 
one  of  the  most  widespread  and  powerful  of  all  Asiatic 
faiths,  a  rebuke,  as  we  shall  see,  to  the  semi-idolatrous 
Christianity  of  the  early  centuries  of  its  history,  and 
to-day  a  strong  obstacle,  not  only  to  the  progress  of 
Christianity,  but  also  to  the  hideous  polytheisms  of 
India.     The  longer  we  ponder  some  of  the  mighty  and 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  7 

stubborn  facts  of  the  religious  world,  the  deeper  may  be 
our  conviction  in  a  providential  mission  of  some  of  the 
less  complete  forms  of  spiritual  faith.  AYe  are  in  the 
midst  of  a  divine  evolution  which  is  very  slow  and 
patient.  Our  own  religion  has  had  a  long  history,  and 
when  we  consider  its  relations  to  Judaism,  we  get  a 
new  sense  of  the  truth  that  it  is  indeed  historic  and  has 
its  roots  in  a  remote  past. 

Our  faith  in  the  Christian  Gospel,  and  our  hope  of 
its  universal  supremacy,  spring  very  largely  out  of  its 
connections  with  Judaism.  We  may  not  wisely  forget 
the  words  of  the  greatest  of  all  Christian  apostles,  who 
said  of  his  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh,  the  Israel- 
ites, theirs  "  is  the  adoption,  and  the  glory,  and  the  cov- 
enants, and  the  giving  of  the  law  and  the  service  of 
God,  and  the  promises ;  whose  are  the  Fathers,  and  of 
whom  is  Christ  as  concerning  the  flesh,  who  is  over  all, 
God  blessed  forever."  In  our  study  of  the  past,  in  our 
survey  of  the  present,  in  our  clear  and  hopeful  outlook 
into  the  future,  we  should  not  fail  to  realize  the  vital 
intimacies  of  Christianity  and  Judaism.  He  who  was 
the  greatest  of  Christian  preachers  said  :  "  I  also  am 
an  Israelite."  And  no  Christian  to-day  absorbs  the  full 
glory  of  his  position  before  God,  and  the  certainty  of 
the  ultimate  dominance  of  his  faith,  until  he  has  learned 
from  the  Scriptures,  that  he  is  the  heir  to  the  divine 
promises  made  to  the  chosen  nation,  promises  of  the 
universal  dominion  of  the  kingdom  of  righteousness, 
and  until  he  hears  the  voice  of  Him,  who  carried  His 
people  all  the  days  of  old  in  His  heart,  speaking  now  to 
his  soul  and  saying :  "  Fear  not,  O  Israel,  for  I  have 
redeemed  thee." 

After  all.  Israel  is  the  name  that  binds  together  the 


8  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Old  Testament  and  the  New.  Our  Saviour  was  the  son 
of  David  and  the  son  of  Abraham,  and  He  came  to  ful- 
fil the  law  of  Moses.  First  of  all,  He  sought  after  the 
lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.  His  Beatitudes  are  a 
chime  of  Hebrew  bells,  a  sweet  chime  which  is  sounded 
to-day  in  every  church  by  the  Hudson  or  the  Mississippi, 
in  every  Christian  home  by  the  Ganges  or  the  shore 
of  the  Yellow  Sea.  A  Jewish  Eabbi  recently  said : 
"  Jesus  was  in  every  respect  a  true  son  of  the  syna- 
gogue. The  law  which  He  expounded  was  the  law  of 
Moses."  It  was  as  dear  to  Him  as  to  any  Jew  to-day, 
and  how  dear  it  is,  I  never  realized  until  I  heard  Eabbi 
Gottheil,  in  the  presence  of  the  representatives  of  all 
the  religions  of  Asia  and  of  Europe  and  America,  say 
of  the  Jewish  people  :  "  They  take  the  law  of  Moses  in 
their  hands.  And  oh,  how  often  have  I  seen  in  my 
youth,  that  scroll  bedewed  with  the  tears  of  poor  suffer- 
ing Jews,  as  they  lift  it  up  again  and  say :  '  This  is  the 
law  that  Moses  laid  before  the  people  of  Israel.'  " 

The  earliest  preachers  of  the  Gospel  were  Jews,  who 
affirmed  from  their  own  Scriptures,  that  Jesus  was  the 
Christ.  On  the  rock  of  Judaism  was  built  the  Church. 
From  its  strong  roots  has  sprung  the  tree  of  our 
civilization.  He  was  right  who  said  that  every  Chris- 
tian Church  on  earth,  and  every  mosque,  is  a  monument 
to  Moses.  For,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  to  quote  from  Pro- 
fessor Eobertson  Smith,  "it  is  not  and  cannot  be  denied 
that  the  prophets  found  for  themselves  and  their  nation 
a  knowledge  of  God,  and  not  a  mere  speculative  knowl- 
edge, but  a  practical  fellowship  of  faith  with  Him, 
which  the  seekers  after  truth  among  the  Gentiles  never 
attained  to.  This  at  least  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the 
fact  that  the  light  which  went  forth  in  Christ  Jesus  to 


BEGIN  NINO  AT  JERUSALEM  9 

lighten  the  Gentiles,  did  proceed  from  the  midst  of  the 
Old  Testament  people."  ("Prophets  of  Israel,"  p.  9.) 
"  There  was  no  solid  and  continuous  progress  in  spirit- 
ual things  under  any  heathen  system,  but  the  nob!, 
religions  outside  of  Christianity  gradually  decayed  and 
lost  whatever  moral  power  they  once  possessed.  If  the 
religion  of  the  Bible  can  be  shown  to  have  run  a  differ- 
ent course,  if  it  can  be  shown  that  in  it  truth  once 
attained  was  never  lost  and  never  thrust  aside  so  as  to 
lose  its  influence,  but  that,  in  spite  of  all  impediments, 
the  knowledge  of  God  given  to  Israel,  moved  steadily 
forward,  until  at  last  it  emancipated  itself  from  national 
restrictions,  and,  without  changing  its  consistency,  or 
denying  its  former  history,  merged  in  the  perfect  relig- 
ion of  Christ,  which  still  satisfies  the  deepest  spiritual 
needs  of  mankind,  then,  I  apprehend  the  distinctive 
claims  of  the  Bible  and  the  religion  of  the  Bible  are  set 
upon  a  broad  and  safe  basis,  and  the  revelation  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments  may  fairly  claim  to  be  the 
revelation  of  God  to  men  in  a  special  and  absolute 
sense."     ("Prophets  of  Israel,"  p.  13.) 

Judaism  appears  as  a  supreme,  conspicuous,  an  ever- 
present,  and  ever-startling  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the 
Scriptures,  old  and  new ;  and  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures 
makes  sure  the  ultimate  world-wide  establishment  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  the  predominance  of  Biblical  truth  in 
the  life,  not  only  of  Asia,  but  of  all  mankind.  The  evi- 
dence is  such  that  it  seems  to  me  morally  irresistible. 
Here  is  a  people,  having  no  home  in  any  one  land,  but 
whose  ancient  home  is  the  Holy  Land  of  Jew  and 
Christian  alike.  The  traveller  who  visits  the  City  of 
David  to-day  and  sees  her  discrowned  and  desolate, 
opens  his  Bible  and  hears  the   prediction  of   Christ: 


10  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

"  Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden  down  by  the  Gentiles  until 
the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  fulfilled."  Is  not  this 
true?  The  Jews  have  been  robbed  of  their  capital  city 
and  dispersed  everywhere.  God  seems  to  have  taken 
up  this  handful  of  wheat  and  chaff  and  to  have  blown 
upon  it.  What  has  been  the  result  ?  They  are  just  as 
distinct  a  people  to-day  as  when  Moses  led  them  out 
of  Egypt.  The  black  Jews  of  India,  who  have  been 
degraded  by  native  alliances  on  the  West  Coast,  are  still 
Jews.  Back  in  the  dawn  of  their  history,  as  they  were 
entering  their  promised  land,  or,  if  we  are  forced  to  a 
much  later  date,  still  long  ages  before  the  Christian  era, 
the  prophets  declared  that  if  they  forsook  God's  Com- 
mandments, their  land  should  be  taken  away  from  them. 
I  remember  opening  my  Bible  and  reading  the  twenty- 
eighth  and  thirty-first  chapters  of  Deuteronomy  one 
March  day  in  1874,  as  I  was  riding  over  the  desolate 
hills  of  Judea.  And  as  I  read  the  curses  announced 
should  Israel  reject  the  counsel  of  the  Lord,  and  looked 
out  upon  the  plagues  and  desolations  of  that  land  which 
had  once  flowed  with  milk  and  honey,  I  realized  that 
the  predictions  had  had  a  marvellous  fulfilment. 

Four  great  facts  appear  to  cover  the  whole  history 
of  Israel.  They  were  a  chosen  nation  ;  they  were  a 
separated  people  ;  they  have  been  a  suffering  people ; 
and  they  are  the  Messianic  people,  and  all  these  facts 
were  once  divine  prophecies.  "  The  Lord  hath  chosen 
Jacob  for  Himself,  and  Israel  for  His  peculiar  treas- 
ure." These  words  are  written  on  the  forehead  of  the 
Jew.  It  has  been  truly  said  that  "  a  religion  which  has 
endured  every  possible  trial,  which  has  outlived  every 
vicissitude  of  human  fortune,  and  has  never  failed  to 
reassert  its  power  unbroken  in  the  collapse  of  its  old 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  11 

environments,  which  has  pursued  a  consistent  and  vic- 
torious course  through  the  lapse  of  eventful  centuries, 
declares  itself  by  irresistible  evidence  to  be  a  thing  of 
reality  and  power."  (Smith,  "  Prophets  of  Israel,"  p. 
16.)  Through  this  people  has  come  all  the  pure  mono- 
theism which  exists  to-day  ;  they  have  given  us  the 
world's  Bible  and  the  world's  Saviour,  and  our  truest 
freedom.  The  liberties  of  the  English  race  were  won 
by  Puritan  warriors  with  Hebrew  Psalms  breaking  from 
their  lips.  Through  this  divinely  appointed  people 
has  come  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God.  "  The  Lord 
hath  chosen  thee  to  be  a  peculiar  people  unto  Himself, 
above  all  the  nations  that  are  upon  the  earth."  They 
still  believe,  both  the  orthodox  and  the  liberal  Jews 
of  to-day,  that  they  are  a  chosen  nation,  destined  to 
bring  about  the  happiness  of  the  human  race.  Though 
reformed  Judaism  affirms  that  the  Jews  do  not  consti- 
tute a  nation,  but  only  a  religious  community ;  that  they 
do  not  look  for  the  coming  of  a  personal  Messiah  who 
will  lead  them  back  to  Palestine,  and  that  they  have  no 
political  hopes  other  than  those  of  the  nations  among 
whom  they  dwell,  the  orthodox  Israelite  says  that  the 
course  of  historic  Judaism  is  clear — it  is  to  keep  sepa- 
rate, and  all  believe  themselves  to  be  witnesses  to  the 
unity  and  the  spirituality  of  God.  No  wonder  this 
people  are  proud,  even  in  their  sometimes  affected  hu- 
mility. The  humblest  Jew  to-day  may  exclaim  :  "My 
fathers  braved  the  power  which  built  the  Pyramids. 
Ages  before  Lycurgus  and  Solon  gave  their  laws,  they 
received  from  Moses  a  legislation  so  wise  and  merciful 
that  it  enters  to-dav  as  a  benign  influence  over  the 
most  civilized  peoples.  My  ancestors  built  a  city 
which,  though  destroyed  seventeen  times,  is  still  the 


12  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

sacred  city  of  the  world.  When  matched  against  the 
kingly  and  priestly  sceptres  of  Rome  and  Athens,  of 
Memphis  and  Babylon,  of  Antioch  and  Alexandria,  of 
Mecca  and  Delhi,  Benares  and  Kyoto,  and  the  later 
capitals  by  the  Bosporus  and  the  Danube,  the  Seine 
and  the  Thames,  the  Hudson  and  the  Potomac,  the 
broken  rod  of  Jerusalem  swallows  them  all." 

Now,  why  is  the  Jew  possessed  of  this  invincible  con- 
fidence in  his  divine  mission  ?  Moral  causes  alone  will 
explain  it.  What  infused  into  the  Hebrew  mind  these 
convictions  and  shaped  this  peculiar  character?  Is 
there  any  explanation  which  really  explains,  except  that 
which  is  written  out  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  in  the 
divine  call  of  Abraham,  in  the  deliverance  from  Egypt, 
in  the  manifestations  of  God  on  Mount  Sinai,  in  the 
Exile,  and  in  the  sermons  of  the  greater  prophets,  and  in 
those  revelations  which  make  the  substance  of  their 
recorded  history?  If  the  Jew  has  been  exclusive  and 
haughty,  has  there  not  been  reason  for  this  spirit  ?  Is 
he  not  the  true  aristocrat  of  our  earth  to-day  with  lin- 
eage running  back  four  thousand  years,  to  that  friend 
of  God  who  is  the  revered  father  of  three  religions  ? 
Though  Israel  was  not  chosen  on  account  of  his  right- 
eousness, and  though  no  other  nation  has  been  so  re- 
buked for  its  corruption,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the 
Hebrew  genius  is  primarily  the  genius  of  religion,  that 
he  is  the  "especial  exponent  of  august  and  triumphant 
theism,"  that  his  nation  is  truly  called  the  "  God-in- 
toxicated race,"  and  that,  as  Rabbi  Mendes  has  said, 
"  While  we  march  in  the  van  of  progress,  our  hand  is 
always  raised,  pointing  to  God."  The  most  popular 
poet  to-day  in  America,  in  England,  in  Germany,  is 
not  Homer  or  Shakespeare   or  Goethe,  but  David  of 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  13 

Bethlehem,  using  that  name  to  describe  the  various 
singers  of  the  Hebrew  Psalms.  No  temples  ever  reared 
have  such  an  abiding  interest  as  those  of  Solomon  and 
Herod,  and  the  Jehovah  therein  worshipped  is  the  God 
of  the  conquering  races  of  the  world.  The  deities  of 
other  nations  are  now  only  a  dream,  a  whiff  of  ancient 
mist  gilding  some  far-off  morning  of  the  past.  Varuna 
and  Indra  are  gone  ;  Osiris  is  gone,  and  Zeus  and  Mars, 
and  Apollo,  Odin  and  Thor,  but  Jehovah,  the  God  of 
Israel,  flames  like  a  holy  sun  in  the  forehead  of  modern 
civilization. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  a  nation  so  chosen  of 
God  would  give  us  characters  of  great  originality  and 
strength.  Other  men  seem  pigmies  beside  the  greatest 
of  them,  and  even  in  fiction  what  personages  have 
made  a  deeper  impression  on  the  imagination  than 
Eliot's  Deronda  and  Mordecai,  Shakespeare's  Shylock 
and  Lessing's  Nathan  the  Wise?  The  chosen  nation 
has  possessed  the  qualities  becoming  the  divinely  se- 
lected people.  The  soldiers  of  Rome  never  met  in 
the  forests  of  Gaul  a  desperate  valor  like  that  which 
smote  them  from  the  walls  of  Jerusalem.  No  martyrs 
in  the  Roman  arena  were  ever  braver  than  the  children 
of  Israel  in  their  later  adversities,  and  no  one  who 
studies  the  marvellous  resurrection  of  the  Jew  in  modern 
times  can  fail  to  be  impressed  by  his  genius.  "  The 
French  Revolution,"  writes  Miss  Lazarus,  "sounded  a 
note  of  freedom  so  loud  and  clamorous  that  it  pierced 
the  Ghetto  walls,"  and  from  the  days  of  Napoleon,  the 
Jew  has  been  springing  to  the  chief  places  in  the  Euro- 
pean world.  No  other  equal  number  of  people  on  the 
continent  has  to-day  an  equal  influence  along  the  lines 
of   commerce  and   science.     We   are  justified   in  this 


14  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

conclusion  when  we  remember  that  one-fourth  of  the 
railway  system  of  Russia  is  owned  by  a  Jew,  that  the 
Bourse  of  Vienna  is  almost  wholly  in  Jewish  hands, 
that  six-sevenths  of  the  Prussian  bankers  are  of  the 
Jewish  race,  that  Jews  occupy  seventy  chairs  in  the  uni- 
versities of  Germany,  that  the  liberal  press  of  the 
German  Empire  is  almost  wholly  in  their  hands,  and 
that  jealous  hatred  of  their  predominance  is  disturbing 
the  stable  foundations  of  the  French  Republic.  The 
Rothschilds  are  the  bankers  of  the  chief  European  na- 
tions. A  race  that  has  given  to  modern  statesmanship 
Disraeli,  Gambetta  and  Castelar,  to  modern  poetry  a 
Heine  and  to  modern  music  a  Mendelssohn,  is  not  un- 
worthy of  its  past,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  many 
Christians  regard  as  a  fulfilment  of  prophecy  and  as 
a  herald  of  Israel's  latter-day  glory  and  restoration  to 
the  Holy  Land,  this  marvellous  uprising  of  Jewish  in- 
fluence in  modern  times. 

But  the  second  fact  about  Israel  is  this  :  it  was  not 
only  a  chosen,  but  it  was  also  a  separated  nation.  "  I 
have  separated  you  from  the  peoples."  "  I  have  sev- 
ered you  from  the  peoples."  "  Behold,  this  people  shall 
dwell  alone."  The  Jew  is  still  an  Asiatic,  though  living 
in  all  lands  ;  he  is  an  exotic  wherever  transplanted.  In 
spite  of  the  earnest  efforts  of  the  reformed  Jews  in  our 
country  to  become  thoroughly  Americanized,  we  all  feel 
that  this  twig  from  the  terebinth  of  Abraham  has  not 
been  grafted  into  the  northern  oak  or  the  southern  palm. 
"  Under  all  persecutions,"  writes  a  Jewish  woman,  "  the 
Jews  became  more  intensely  national,  more  exclusive 
and  sectarian  than  they  had  ever  been  before."  And 
with  peculiar  haughtiness,  they  resent,  as  does  no  other 
people,  all  efforts  to  induce  them  to  accept  the  Christian 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  15 

faith.  They  say  :  "  We  do  not  want  missions  to  con- 
vert us;  we  cannot  become  Episcopalians,  or  Presby- 
terians, or  members  of  any  dividing  sect."  Scattered, 
hunted  and  hated,  the  Jew  has  not  given  up  his  sepa- 
rateness,  and  as  the  features  of  the  Jewish  face  are  to- 
day the  same  that  stand  out  from  the  sculptures  on  the 
palaces  of  Nineveh,  so  the  moral  features  of  the  race  of 
Jacob,  the  bargainer,  of  David,  the  singer,  of  Isaiah, 
the  orator,  and  of  Ezra,  the  scribe,  have  been  marvel- 
lously persistent.  Spectral  as  a  cloud,  ho  is  unchanged 
as  adamant.  A  thousand  years  before  Saxon  and  Celt 
had  any  history,  he  was  old  on  the  earth.  The  messen- 
gers of  Judas  Maccabeus  stood  before  the  Roman  senate, 
and  then  Rome  saw  for  the  first  time  that  race  which 
she  was  to  subdue,  but  which  in  Jesus  conquered  her. 
In  the  year  70,  Titus,  the  Roman  Emperor,  had  his 
coins  stamped  with  the  words,  "  Judea  capta "  ;  but 
that  captured  and  enslaved  province  sent  forth  a  people 
that  has  outlived  the  Roman  Empire.  The  temple  was 
destroyed,  but  for  centuries  the  wailing  Jews  have  thrust 
their  fingers  into  its  broken  foundations  while  they  sang 
the  songs  of  their  kingly  poet.  No  Athenians  are  wont 
to  ascend  the  Acropolis  and  to  sob  over  the  shattered 
marbles  of  the  Parthenon,  and  chant  the  strophes  of 
the  great  tragic  poets  of  Athens.  No  Egyptians  in  Kar- 
nac  throng  the  Hall  of  the  Gods  with  worshipful  hymns 
to  Orus  and  Osiris.  No  Syrian  shepherds  flock  to  Baal- 
bec  and  moan  over  that  fractured  and  colossal  miracle 
of  stone  which  once  greeted  the  envious  eye  of  the  day 
as  he  glanced  over  the  snowy  crests  of  Mount  Lebanon. 
But  for  centuries  the  faithful  Israelites,  separated  from 
all  other  peoples,  have  gathered  by  the  ruins  of  their 
ancient  sanctuary,  and  the  songs  which  they  there  wail 


16  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

forth  are  the  undying  expressions  of  the  greatness  and 
the  faith  of  their  peculiar  race.  Yv^ith  no  capital  city, 
with  no  land  they  can  call  their  own,  wandering  every- 
whither, like  the  blighted  Jew  of  legendary  fancy  who 
condemned  the  Messiah,  but  still  holding  in  his  hand 
the  Book,  Israel  has  maintained  himself.  As  we  stand 
beneath  the  arch  of  Titus,  in  Rome,  and  behold  the  bas- 
relief  which,  represents  the  seven-branched,  almond- 
flowered  golden  candle-stick  captured  from  the  temple 
in  Jerusalem,  which  decked  the  triumph  of  the  imperial 
spoiler,  we  reach  our  hand  backward  through  more  than 
thirty  centuries  to  that  chosen  people,  still  separated 
from  others,  who  reared  their  tabernacle  in  the  desert 
and  lit  its  holy  place  with  the  eternal  lamp  of  God. 

Girded  in  his  ancient  Canaan  by  hostile  races,  the 
Israelite  was  not  cut  off.  A  slave  in  Egypt,  in  Nineveh, 
in  Babylon,  in  Rome,  in  Spain,  smitten  by  Macedonian 
sword  and  Roman  spear,  and  Mohammedan  scimitar, 
and  Christian  battle-axe,  and  scorched  by  the  infernal 
fires  of  persecution,  he  has  not  been  exterminated  and 
he  has  not  been  assimilated,  and  thus  has  been  fulfilled 
the  prediction  made  in  the  desert — "  Thy  people  shall 
dwell  alone,  and  shall  not  be  numbered  among  the 
nations." 

In  the  third  place,  Israel  has  been  a  persecuted  and 
afflicted  and  a  suffering  nation,  and  their  history  was 
written  in  advance.  Prophets  and  apostles  and  the 
Messiah  foresaw  it  and  foretold  it.  Out  of  what  agon- 
ies have  they  come  !  The  first  Christian  emperor,  Con- 
stantine,  cut  off  their  ears  and  made  them  vagabonds, 
and  Justinian,  the  law-giver,  destroyed  their  syna- 
gogues, denied  them  all  civil  rights,  and  would  not  per- 
mit them  to  testify  in  court,  bequeath  their  property  to 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  17 

their  children,  or  even  enter  a  cave  for  worship.  The 
Church  tried  every  perverse  and  wicked  way  to  convert 
the  Jew,  and,  failing,  used  every  form  of  slander,  vio- 
lence and  S}7stematic  outrage  to  exterminate  him.  In 
Home,  the  Popes  forced  the  Israelites  to  wear  yellow 
hats,  denounced  them  as  heretics,  shut  them  up  in  the 
Ghetto,  the  filthiest  part  of  the  city,  and  required  them 
to  be  in  their  quarters  by  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening, 
and  compelled  them  to  hear  monks  preach  on  Friday, 
They  were  charged  with  poisoning  wells,  with  killing 
Christian  children  and  using  their  blood  at  the  Pass- 
over. And  the  Easter-time,  which  is  to  us  a  time  of 
joy  and  love,  was  to  the  Jew  a  time  of  terror  and  agony, 
when  his  home  might  be  burned  and  his  body  cut  down 
with  the  sword.  The  hate  and  prejudice  which  have 
barred  the  path  of  the  negro  in  America  are  nothing  to 
the  hatred  of  the  Jew  in  the  Middle  Ages.  He  could 
not  enter  the  trades,  he  could  not  own  land,  he  was 
forced  to  become  a  money  lender.  As  he  could  not 
handle  new  goods,  he  was  compelled  to  become  a  dealer 
m  old  clothes,  and  when  you  hear  the  Hebrew  junk- 
dealer  crying  through  your  alleys  "  Clothes  and  old 
iron,"  you  hear,  as  one  has  said — "  a  voice  sounding 
from  the  Dark  Ages,  a  cry  which  was  put  into  Jewish 
lips  by  the  cruelty  of  our  Christian  forefathers."  On 
the  Jews  was  wreaked  the  demonism  of  the  baptized 
barbarians  whom  Torquemada  marshalled  in  the  dun- 
geons of  the  Inquisition.  Christian  kings  were  harder 
on  the  Jew  than  Nero  and  Domitian  on  the  Christian. 
The  Crusaders  strove  to  murder  all  Jews  that  had  not 
been  baptized;  the  English  populace  plundered  and 
slaughtered  them  at  the  coronation  of  an  English  king, 
and  for  four  hundred  years,  up  to  the  time  of  Cromwell, 
2 


18  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

no  Jew  could  set  foot  in  England ;  and  when  in  our  own 
century  the  bill  which  repealed  the  civil  disabilities  of 
the  Jew  was  passed  in  the  House  of  Commons,  it  was 
more  obnoxious  to  the  Lords  than  the  Home  Rule  Bill 
of  the  last  Liberal  administration.  Ten  times  it  went 
through  the  Lower  House  to  be  rejected  as  often  by  the 
House  of  Peers.  The  German  poet,  Herder,  has  said 
that  the  history  of  the  Jew  is  the  greatest  poem  of  all 
times.  Yes,  that  poem  is  both  a  tragedy  and  an  epic,  a 
tragedy  compared  with  which  Eschylus  and  Shake- 
speare are  tame,  an  epic  matched  with  which  the  Iliad 
is  a  record  of  boyish  courage  and  adventure.  O,  how 
superior  Judaism  seems  in  some  of  its  aspects  to  the 
corrupt  Christianity  which  persecuted  it !  How  thor- 
oughly our  sympathies  go  out  to  the  Jew  and  not  to  the 
Christian  Church  as  we  read  Grace  Aguilar's  story  of  the 
"  Yale  of  Cedars,"  a  thrilling  account  of  the  sufferings 
of  the  Jews  in  Spain  !  We  find  our  hearts  with  the 
victims  and  not  with  the  victors,  and  feel  that  the  Jew 
who  trusted  in  the  Torah  and  in  the  teachings  of  the 
synagogue  for  the  advancement  of  truth,  might  well 
look  down  on  the  Christianity  that  trusted  in  persecu- 
tion and  the  sword.  We  can  but  honor  Israel's  tenacious 
loyalty  to  his  convictions,  unparalleled  in  history.  Of- 
fended by  what  the  Jews  deemed  the  worship  of  three 
gods,  by  the  idolatry  which  seemed  to  them  practised 
in  Christian  churches  and  by  the  crowned  and  mitred 
barbarism  in  Church  and  State,  all  efforts  to  lead  them 
to  forsake  the  old  standards  were  vain.  If  Christianity 
had  only  obeyed  Christ  and  loved  its  enemies,  how  dif- 
ferent its  history  would  have  been  !  But  for  the  Jew, 
the  follower  of  Jesus  had  nothing  but  curses  and 
cruelty.     When  we  remember  that  eight  hundred  thou- 


BE 0 INNING  AT  JERUSALEM  10 

sand  Jews  were  driven  out  of  Spain,  that  they  could 
find  no  refuge  in  other  lands  that  was  safe  and  perma- 
nent, that  their  children  were  stolen  from  them,  that 
they  were  sold  as  slaves,  that  they  were  slain  by  the 
thousand  by  the  followers  of  the  Cross,  we  are  not  sur- 
prised that  Israel  has  felt  little  reason  to  be  in  love  with 
so-called  Christian  nations.  The  stream  of  modem 
Jewish  history  starts  from  the  destruction  of  Jerusa- 
lem and  was  made  lurid  at  the  beginning  by  the  fires  of 
an  unequalled  tragedy.  All  sorrows  are  colorless  be- 
fore the  sorrows  of  Zion  ;  all  persecution  mild  compared 
with  those  which  have  come  to 

"  These  Ishmaels  and  Hagars  of  mankind 

That  lived  in  narrow  streets  and  lane  obscure, 
Ghetto  and  Judenstrass,  in  mirk  and  mire  ; 

Taught  in  the  school  of  patience  to  endure 
The  life  of  anguish  and  the  death  of  fire. 

"  All  their  lives  long,  with  the  unleavened  bread 
And  bitter  herbs  of  exile  and  its  fears, 
The  wasting  famine  of  the  heart  they  fed, 
And  slaked  its  thirst  with  Marah  of  their  tears. 

' '  '  Anathema  marantha  ! '  was  the  cry 

That  rang  from  town  to  town,  from  street  to  street  ; 
At  every  gate  the  accursed  Mordecai 
Was  mocked  and  jeered,  and  spurned  by  Christian  feet. 

"  Pride  and  humiliation,  hand  in  hand 

Walked  with    them  through   the  world  where'er   they 
went ; 
Trampled  and  beaten  were  they  as  the  sand, 
And  yet  unshaken  as  the  continent. 

"  For  in  the  background  figures  vague  and  vast 
Of  patriarchs  and  of  prophets  rose  sublime, 
And  all  the  great  traditions  of  the  Past 
They  saw  reflected  in  the  coming  time. 


20  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

' '  And  thus  forever  with  reverted  look 

The  mystic  volume  of  the  world  they  read, 
Spelling  it  backward,  like  a  Hebrew  book, 
Till  life  became  a  Legend  of  the  Dead." 

We  may  say  that  all  this  is  in  fulfilment  of  prophecy. 
True ;  but  the  crime  and  disgrace  of  it  are  none  the 
less.  "  Offences  must  come,"  said  Jesus  ;  "  but  woe  to 
him  by  whom  the  offence  cometh."  Israel  may  surely 
say,  in  words  spoken  many  hundred  years  ago :  "  Is 
there  any  sorrow  like  unto  my  sorrow  ?  " 

' '  The  wild  dove  hath  her  nest,  the  fox  his  cave  ; 
Mankind  their  country  ;  Israel  but  the  grave.  " 

But  the  Israelites  have  not  only  been  a  chosen  and 
a  separated  and  a  suffering  nation,  they  have  also  been 
the  Messianic  people,  bearing  in  their  hearts  the  living 
hope  of  a  coming  One,  who  should  be  their  deliverer, 
and  through  whom,  as  Isaiah  wrote — "the  Gentiles 
shall  see  thy  light."  The  Messianic  ideal  ran  through 
the  whole  of  Israel's  ancient  history.  That  history  was 
a  prophecy.  As  Professor  Briggs  has  said  :  "  The  great 
mass  of  Hebrew  prophecy  exhibits  a  revelation  of  a 
vastly  higher  character  than  the  non-Hebrew  prophecy. 
It  is  not  external,  mechanical,  or  magical,  but  internal, 
spiritual  and  intelligent.  Hebrew  prophecy  is  through 
the  enlightenment  of  the  mind  of  the  prophet,  the  stim- 
ulation of  his  moral  nature,  the  constraining  of  his 
will  under  the  most  sublime  motives,  the  assurance  of 
his  soul  that  he  is  in  possession  of  divine  truth,  and 
that  he  is  commissioned  to  declare  it.  ("  Messianic 
Prophecy,"  p.  14.)  We  need  not  be  unwilling  to  recog- 
nize the  foreign  elements  incorporated  into  the  religion 
of  Israel,  if  we  recognize  also  its  power  of  assimilation 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  21 

and  transfiguration,  for,  as  Professor  Cornill  has  said, 
"  Israel  resembles  in  spiritual  things  the  fabulous  King 
Midas,  who  turned  everything  he  touched  into  gold." 
("  Prophets  of  Israel,"  p.  14.) 

The  revelation  of  God  made  to  the  Hebrew  people 
was  a  progressive  revelation  ;  element  after  element  was 
added  as  the  history  advanced,  but  this  revelation  was 
so  lofty  that  the  Jew,  above  all  men,  might  claim  that 
he  knew  God.  The  greatest  of  all  Hebrews  said,  "  Sal- 
vation is  of  the  Jews,"  and  their  life,  as  Max  Miiller  has 
written,  "  has  been  the  one  oasis  in  the  vast  desert  of 
ancient  history."  As  in  the  Oberammergau  Passion- 
play,  every  great  scene  in  the  last  days  of  Christ  is  pre- 
ceded by  a  picture  of  some  Old  Testament  scene  which 
is  in  harmony  with  its  spirit  and  is  typical  of  its  events, 
so  the  Christian  finds  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  crowded 
with  intimations  in  type  and  symbol,  in  priestly  and 
kingly  personages,  and  in  prophetic  words,  of  that  won- 
drous life  which  has  actually  become  the  renovating  life 
of  humanity.  Surely  Christianity  presents  a  marvel- 
lous problem  to  those  who  do  not  see  in  Jesus  the  Mes- 
siah of  God.  All  must  acknowledge  that  the  Christian 
Church,  in  its  true  spirit,  shows  some  signs  of  univer- 
sality. The  Gospel  which  it  preaches  satisfies  the  hu- 
man heart  in  its  craving  for  forgiveness,  in  its  need  of 
an  atonement  for  sin,  in  its  yearning  for  a  knowledgo 
of  the  Heavenly  Father,  in  its  quenchless  desire  for 
immortality.  Christianity,  unlike  Hinduism,  Confuci- 
anism, and  Judaism,  seeks  to  make  itself  universal ;  it 
reaches  after  every  nation,  it  puts  the  Bible  into  all  lan- 
guages. The  spirit  of  Judaism  is  the  reverse  of  this. 
"  The  religion  of  my  fathers,"  said  the  great  Moses 
Mendelssohn,  "  does  not  wish  to  be  extended."     Except 


22  THE  (J H HIST  IAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

through  Christianity,  Judaism  is  not  a  conquering  re- 
ligion, and  an  intelligent  world  cannot  see  in  it  the  cul- 
mination of  God's  redeeming  thought  and  purpose.  In 
America  alone,  in  the  last  thirty  years,  the  Christian 
Church,  free  from  the  cruel  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
has  added  more  persons  to  the  number  of  its  communi- 
cants than  there  are  Israelites  in  all  the  world  to-day, 
after  four  thousand  years  of  history.  The  Christian  ex- 
pects the  ultimate  conversion  of  the  Jews  to  Christian- 
ity. I  know  the  Church  will  have  to  be  united,  and 
loving,  and  tolerant,  and  permeated  with  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  before  Israel  is  Christianized  ;  but  that  day  is 
coming. 

What  is  needed  to  transform  the  pious  Jew  into  a 
Christian  ?  He  holds  most  of  our  creed  already ;  all  he 
needs  is  to  accept  the  supremacy  and  sufficiency  of 
Christ  as  his  Saviour.  The  Cross  was  a  stumbling- 
block  to  him  at  the  beginning.  He  looked  for  a  tem- 
poral Messiah,  who  should  raise  up  the  broken  nation 
and  destroy  its  enemies,  and  was  repelled  from  Jesus, 
the  patient  sufferer,  the  teacher,  the  prophet  of  a  spir- 
itual kingdom,  who  died  for  His  enemies.  But  the  best 
spirit  of  Judaism  to-day  cherishes  not  the  old  Messianic 
idea,  but  this  very  Messianic  thought  which  Jesus  ac- 
tualized. I  believe  that  Christianity  needs  Judaism, 
that  it  needs  the  mighty  reinforcement  which  shall  come 
from  Israel  and  hasten  forward  the  consummation  of  all 
things.  The  Jew  will  be  in  harmony  with  the  better 
Christianity  of  the  future.  He  has  not  been  a  perse- 
cutor ;  he  came  to  believe  in  intellectual  freedom  first 
of  all  men.  He  was  a  scholar  when  Europe  was  bar- 
barous and  black  with  ignorance,  and  when  scarcely  one 
priest  out  of  a  thousand  could  write  his  name.     "  Many 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  23 

a  man,  entering  some  squalid  house  of  the  Ghetto  to 
pawn  his  goods  or  to  seek  his  horoscope,  repairing  there 
to  talk  of  the  mysteries  of  the  universe,  emerges  with  a 
disturbed  soul,  ripe  for  the  stake.  The  Jew  knows  how 
to  unveil  the  vulnerable  points  of  the  Church,  and  in 
order  to  do  so,  he  has  at  his  service,  besides  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Holy  Writ,  the  formidable  sagacity  charac- 
teristic of  the  oppressed."  (James  Darmsteter,  "  Se- 
lected Essays,"  p.  266.)  It  was  the  Jews  who  lifted  the 
torch  of  science  in  the  Dark  Ages ;  it  was  they  who 
prepared  the  way  for  the  Protestant  Keformation,  and 
who  knows  but  that  they  are  to  be  the  great  leaders  of 
the  Christian  Church  in  the  future  ?  Who  knows  but 
that  these  greatest  of  Asiatics  are  to  lead  in  the  Chris- 
tian conquest  of  Asia  ?  Did  not  Paul  write,  "  If  the 
casting  away  of  them  be  the  reconciling  of  the  world, 
what  shall  the  receiving  of  them  be  but  life  from  the 
dead ! "  We  may  yet  find  a  new  meaning  in  those  words 
of  Jesus :  "  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews." 

It  is  no  wonder  the  Israelite  has  not  become  Chris- 
tian in  the  past ;  he  has  a  long,  bitter  memory,  but  we 
are  grateful  that  Christianity  and  Judaism  in  our  own 
time  are  getting  closer  together.  When  the  two  become 
one,  how  much  larger  the  good  which  they  will  together 
accomplish!  The  Jew  in  Christ  conquered  the  stub- 
born and  ruthless  Boman  conqueror.  A  crucified  Jew 
overturned  the  Roman  paganism.  The  Aryan  races 
have  received  their  religion  from  the  Semites ;  our 
thoughts  of  God,  of  salvation,  of  eternity,  have  come 
from  the  Jewish  Carpenter.  Under  the  mild  reign  of 
the  "  blessed  Jew  "  the  chief  nations  bow  to-day.  The 
cross  on  which  He  died  breathing  forgiveness,  has 
proved   mightier   than  Caesar's    throne.     When  Chris- 


24:  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

tianity  came,  then  it  was  that  Israel  enlarged  the  place 
of  his  tent  and  stretched  forth  the  curtains  of  his  habi- 
tation. And  surely  the  world's  future  gathers  not 
around  the  parchment  scroll  of  the  Hebrew  Torah,  but 
around  the  Cross  whereon  were  written  those  words  of 
stumbling  which  are  yet  to  be  words  of  glory  :  "Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  the  King  of  the  Jews."  He  before  whom 
the  Christian  world  bows  to-day  was  called  a  "  light  to  en- 
lighten the  Gentiles,  and  the  glory  of  my  people  Israel." 
The  chosen  nation  has  no  other  glory  like  this.  "  He 
is  the  fairest  flower,"  as  Disraeli  said,  "  and  the  eternal 
pride  of  the  Jewish  race.  Northern  Europe  worships 
the  Son  of  the  Jewish  mother,  and  gives  Him  a  place 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Creator,  and  Southern  Europe 
worships  besides,  a  Queen  of  Heaven,  a  Jewish  Maiden/' 
Can  we  doubt  that  to  His  Church  is  given  a  Prince  and 
a  Saviour  who  is  worthy  of  all  men's  homage  and  obedi- 
ence, and  that  to  us  has  come  a  revelation  on  which  He 
has  stamped  a  divine  seal,  and  that  He  whose  life  was 
lived  on  the  soil  of  Asia  shall  yet  be  the  spiritual  leader 
of  the  greatest  of  continents  ? 

A  well-known  but  rarely  appreciated  story  is  told  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  that  he  said  to  his  chaplain  :  "If 
your  religion  is  true,  it  ought  to  be  capable  of  very 
brief  and  simple  proof.  Will  you  give  me  the  evidence 
of  its  truth  in  one  word  ?  "  He  answered,  "  Israel." 
The  chaplain  might  have  answered,  "  Experience ; " 
men  have  known  and  tested  the  Christian  religion  as 
something  personal,  and  it  has  astonished,  delighted, 
and  satisfied  them.  Or  he  might  have  answered,  "  Con- 
science." Here  is  a  religion  that  reaches  man's  inmost 
soul,  where  God  dwelleth,  and  finds  Him  there  as  the 
sun  finds  and  floods  all  earthly  darkness.     Or  he  might 


BEGINNING  AT  JERUSALEM  25 

have  replied,  "  Christ,"  who  is  Himself  the  solution  of 
man's  deepest  problems;  Christ  the  symbol  of  divine 
wisdom,  as  Spinoza  called  Him,  the  incomparable  One 
whose  peasant  hand  nailed  to  a  malefactor's  gibbet, 
overturned  the  empire  of  Rome,  and  established  for 
Himself  a  golden  monarchy  within  whose  circuit  lies 
to-day  the  mastery  of  this  earth.  Or,  he  might  have 
said  in  reply  to  the  king's  question,  "  Prophecy;"  here 
is  a  religion  whose  Founder,  whose  apostles,  whose 
heralds  were  gifted  with  supernatural  wisdom  and  in- 
sight and  thus  perceived  and  foretold  what  was  wrapped 
up  in  the  coming  ages.  Or  he  might  have  answered, 
"  History ; "  here  is  a  religion  which  vindicates  its  di- 
vine origin  by  its  historical  effects  over  many  nations, 
and  through  many  centuries,  effects  which  become  more 
potent  and  divine  the  more  closely  men  approach  to 
the  spirit  of  its  Founder.  Or  he  might  have  answered, 
"  The  Bible,"  the  anomaly  of  all  books,  most  ancient, 
most  modern ;  the  builder,  the  bulwark  of  order  and 
freedom,  working  its  moral  miracles  wherever,  in  three 
hundred  languages,  it  tells  to-day  of  the  law  that  was 
given  by  Moses  and  the  grace  and  truth  which  came  by 
Jesus  Christ.  The  wise  chaplain  said  none  of  these 
things,  but  uttered  instead  that  word,  the  most  musical, 
the  most  fascinating,  the  most  solemn,  the  most  mo- 
mentous, the  most  divine — "  Israel."  In  that  one  word, 
experience,  conscience,  Christ,  prophecy,  history,  and 
the  Bible  are  all  wrapped  up. 

I  believe  that  Judaism  and  Christianity  are  yet  to  be 
made  one,  not  through  any  scheme  of  comprehensive 
rationalism  which  shall  sink  both  into  mere  societies  of 
ethical  culture,  but  through  the  acceptance  of  the  truth 
which  is  written  out  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New, 


26  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

that  God  so  loved  the  world  as  to  interfere  in  its  behalf ; 
and  that  He  who  through  miracles  of  creative  might 
has  bridged  the   chasm  between  the  non-existent  and 
the  existent,  has,  by  the  miracles  of  redeeming  love  and 
power  made  known  His  will  unto  men,  giving  authority 
to  His  Word  and  conquering  grace  to  His  Gospel :  that 
He  who  spake  in  times  past  to  the  fathers  by  the  He- 
brew prophets,  hath  in  later  days  spoken  to  us  by  His 
Son,  whom  He  hath  appointed  heir  of  all  things,  by 
whom  He  shall  judge  the  world,  and  who  shall  reign 
over  the  house  of  Jacob  forever  and  forever.     And  when 
men  ask  us  why  we  cherish  this  faith,  we  point  to  Israel, 
the  witness  to  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures ;  Israel  the 
back-slidden  and  suffering  and  persecuted  and  yet  no- 
ble and  mighty,  the  chosen  of  God ;  Israel,  the  ever- 
lasting symbol  of  God's  chastening  and  undying  love  to 
His  people ;  Israel,  of  whom  Jesus  was  the  bright  ter' 
minal  flower;  Israel,  the  marvel  and  mystery  of  nations, 
the   ever-burning  bush  which    has   been  subjected  to 
seven-fold  fires  through  ages  and  has  not  yet  been  con- 
sumed, the  burning  thorn-tree   which  flings  its  light 
over  all  the  past,  and  which  shall  be  the  bright  torch 
of  humanity's  greater  future,  and  to  the  question  why 
this  bush  has  not  been  burned  up,  we  give  the  answer 
which  gladdens  our  hearts  and  fills  us  with  a  new  sense 
of  the  Divine  Presence  and  love,  and  a  new  hope  that 
Asia  and  all  the  earth  shall  yet  be  redeemed,  "  Because 
God  is  in  it." 


CHAPTEE  II 

THE   CROSS  AND  THE   CRESCENT  IN  ASIA 

The  law  and  the  Gospel  went  forth  from  Jerusalem, 
but  Jerusalem  is  to-day  in  Mohammedan  hands,  and 
Turkish  bayonets  guard  both  the  Cradle  and  the  Sepul- 
chre of  Jesus.  From  a  Christian  school  in  Scutari,  I 
have  looked  across  the  Bosporus  and  seen  that  brilliant 
panorama  reaching  from  beyond  Seraglio  Point  on  the 
south  to  the  closely  built  European  quarter  of  Constan- 
tinople north  of  the  Golden  Horn,  and  I  have  felt  my 
heart  sink,  not  only  because  of  the  recent  horrors  which 
had  reddened  with  Christian  blood  the  streets  of  the 
Turkish  metropolis,  but  also  because  the  old  capital  of 
the  first  Christian  empire  had  so  long  been  held  in  the 
cruel,  unrelaxing  grasp  of  Islam.  Crossing  the  seas 
which  encompass  the  western  and  the  southern  coasts 
of  Asia,  one  meets  not  only  the  European  travellers  who 
are  compassing  the  globe  for  pleasure,  but  also  the 
dark-skinned  representatives  of  many  races  who  are 
journeying  to  Mecca,  or  returning  to  distant  isles  from 
that  holy  place.  The  Asiatic  lands  where  the  Cross 
gained  its  earliest  triumphs  are  now  under  the  military 
control  of  the  followers  of  the  Crescent. 

In  Western  Asia  we  confront  Judaism,  Islam  and 
Christianity.  "  Judaism  shows  arrested  development. 
Islam  shows  perverted  development.  Christianity 
shows  corrupted  development."      ("Modern   Missions 

27 


28  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

in  the  East,"  p.  113.)  In  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  a  war-like  section  of  Islam  gained  a  foothold  in 
Europe  and  at  this  hour,  the  seven-hilled  city  founded 
by  the  sagacity  of  the  first  Christian  emperor,  is  occu- 
pied by  the  Caliph,  the  supreme  representative  of  the 
Mohammedan  faith.  For  three  years  Islam  has  been 
the  object  of  a  righteous  indignation  and  intense  loath- 
ing, such  as  have  rarely  been  visited  upon  any  of  the 
great  religions ;  I  mean  of  course,  Islam,  as  represented 
by  the  Turkish  Government.  Unfortunately,  we  cannot 
altogether  separate  the  Turk  from  his  faith.  It  has 
been  truly  said  that  "  the  whole  fabric  of  the  Turkish 
Empire,  rests  on  a  religious  foundation,"  and  "  the 
status  of  the  Christian  before  the  law  is  that  of  an 
alien  in  regard  to  his  own  rights,  and  of  a  slave,  as  far  as 
the  interest  of  Mohammedans  is  concerned."  (Greene, 
"  The  Armenian  Crisis  in  Turkey,"  p.  114.)  The  sol- 
emn treaty  of  Berlin  has  been  outrageously  broken,  and 
the  head  of  the  Mohammedan  faith  was  stigmatized 
by  the  foremost  of  English  statesmen  as  "  The  Great 
Assassin."  It  is  impossible  to  admit  of  any  mitigation 
of  our  condemnation  on  the  ground  that  Christian  peo- 
ples are  also  sinners.  It  is  simply  impossible  to  match 
the  Armenian  horrors  with  anything  of  modern  date 
outside  the  bounds  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  It  is  doubt- 
less true  that  the  fourteen  different  sects  of  Christians 
under  Ottoman  rule  are  very  imperfect  people,  and  that 
they  are  hostile  to  each  other ;  but,  if,  instead  of  four- 
teen, there  were  forty  different  Christian  bodies  in  the 
lands  of  the  Turk,  a  hundred  times  more  quarrelsome, 
Christendom  would  not  be  justified  in  folding  her  arms 
and  quietly  seeing  them  murdered.  And  whenever  it  is 
said  that  Christians  in  the  past  have  been  as  bad  as 


THE  CROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       20 

Turks,  I  am  accustomed  to  let  the  English  historian 
Freeman  reply  :  "  The  worst  Christian  government  is 
better  now  than  it  was  one  hundred  years  ago,  or  five 
hundred  years  ago.  The  rule  of  the  Turk  is  worse  now 
than  it  was  one  hundred  years  ago,  or  five  hundred  years 
ago.  That  is  to  say,  the  worst  Christian  government 
can  reform,  the  Turk  cannot." 

I  had  great  pleasure,  when  in  Calcutta,  in  accepting 
the  hospitality  of  Mr.  Justice  Ameer  Ali,  the  chief  liter- 
ary apologist  of  Mohammedanism,  a  member  of  the 
sect  of  the  Mutazils,  a  free-thinking  body,  who  endeav- 
ored vainly  centuries  ago  to  rationalize  and  liberalize 
Islam.  He  has  been  accustomed  to  waive  aside  the 
Christian  condemnation  of  Turkish  atrocities  by  parad- 
ing the  crimes  of  Christian  governments ;  but  Canon 
MacColl  justly  replies  that  "  the  Christian  conscience 
condemns  the  crimes  committed  in  the  name  of  Chris- 
tianity and  that  no  Mussulman  writer  of  repute  in  any 
Mussulman  state  has  ever  denounced  any  one  of  the 
numberless  massacres  and  other  crimes  which  have 
stained  with  indelible  infamy  the  annals  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire."  So  long  as  the  ninth  Sura  of  the  Koran 
remains,  such  condemnation  is  impious  and  impossible. 

I  believe  that  what  Mr.  Gladstone  said  more  than 
twenty  years  ago,  in  reciting  the  Bulgarian  horrors,  is 
good  policy  to-day.  ' '  Let  the  Turks  carry  away  their 
abuses  in  the  only  possible  manner,  namely,  by  carry- 
ing off  themselves.  This  thorough  riddance,  this  most 
blessed  deliverance,  is  the  only  reparation  we  can  make 
to  the  memory  of  those  heaps  on  heaps  of  dead ;  to  the 
violated  purity  alike  of  matron,  of  maiden  and  of  child ; 
to  the  civilization  which  has  been  affronted  and  shamed; 
to  the  laws  of  God,  or,  if  you  like,  of   Allah ;  to  tho 


30  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

moral  sense  of  mankind  at  large.  There  is  not  a 
criminal  in  a  European  jail,  there  is  not  a  cannibal  in 
the  South  Sea  Islands,  whose  indignation  would  not 
arise  and  overboil  at  the  recital  of  that  which  has  been 
done."  I  agree  with  Mr.  Gladstone  that  the  Eastern 
question  "  is  not  a  question  of  Mohammedanism  simply, 
but  of  Mohammedanism  compounded  with  the  peculiar 
character  of  a  race.  They  are  not  the  mild  Moham- 
medans of  India,  nor  the  chivalrous  Saladins  of  Syria, 
nor  the  cultured  Moors  of  Spain.  They  were,  upon 
the  whole,  from  the  black  day  when  they  first  entered 
Europe,  the  one  great  anti-human  specimen  of  human- 

ity." 

And,  therefore,  to  gain  a  just  and  adequate  idea  or 
estimate  of  Mohammedanism,  we  must,  while  not  ex- 
cluding Turkey  from  our  survey,  go  outside  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire  and  back  into  that  history  which  the 
faith  of  Islam  has  for  more  than  twelve  centuries  and 
a  half  been  making.  Of  Hagar's  son,  Ishmael,  the 
prophecy  was  uttered,  "  He  will  be  a  wild  man ;  his 
hand  will  be  against  every  man  and  every  man's  hand 
against  him,  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the  presence  of 
all  his  brethren."  This  was  the  prediction  made  to 
the  Egyptian  handmaid  of  Sarah,  the  wife  of  Abraham, 
from  whose  son  has  sprung  the  Arab  nation,  out  of 
which  rose  Mohammedanism.  The  greatest  son  of 
Ishmael,  born  about  the  year  570  of  the  Christian  era, 
was  Mohammed.  He,  whom  we  have  been  wont  to 
style  the  false  prophet  of  Islam  is  revered  by  nearly 
two  hundred  millions  of  our  race  as  the  chosen  prophet 
of  God,  to  give  to  the  world  its  ultimate  religion. 

There  are  certain  connections  between  the  faith  of 
Islam  and  the  faith  of  the  Gospel  which  should  lead 


THE  GROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       31 

us  to  feel  that  they  are  not  without  some  spiritual  inter- 
relationship. Both  faiths  go  back  to  Abraham,  though 
by  different  channels.  Mohammed  and  Jesus,  if  it 
be  not  irreverent  to  bind  their  names  together,  taught 
similar  truths  in  regard  to  the  Diyine  unity,  and  there 
are  certain  affiliations  between  the  Koran  and  the  Bible 
which  must  be  acknowledged  by  all.  Arabia,  the  birth- 
place of  the  prophet  of  Islam,  is  a  part  of  sacred  geog- 
raphy. Within  its  northern  limits  is  the  scene  of 
the  wanderings  of  Israel  about  Mount  Sinai  ;  and 
Paul,  the  Apostle,  who  was  three  years  in  Arabia,  be- 
fore he  entered  fully  on  his  active  work,  represents  the 
covenant  of  the  old  law,  under  the  image  of  the  bond- 
woman Hagar,  for,  he  says,  "  This  Hagar  is  Mount 
Sinai  in  Arabia,  and  answereth  to  the  Jerusalem  which 
now  is  and  is  in  bondage  with  her  children,"  a  true  and 
vivid  picture  of  the  present  Jerusalem,  and  also  of  the 
spiritual  bondage  of  those  who,  according  to  natural 
descent,  are  the  children  of  Hagar. 

To-night  we  are  to  compare  two  of  the  foremost 
faiths  which  claim  the  attention  of  mankind.  Except- 
ing Buddhism,  they  are  the  only  missionary  religions 
now  existing,  and  they  are  pushing  their  claims  and 
their  conquests  with  far  more  energy  and  rapidity  than 
the  disciples  of  the  Indian  sage.  While  Christianity 
numbers  among  its  nominal  adherents  four  hundred 
millions  of  men,  and  may  be  said  to  rule  politically 
over  nearly  all  the  world,  excepting  China  and  the 
Turkish  Empire ;  still  Mohammedanism  is  at  present 
winning  some  of  the  races  of  mankind  more  rapidly 
than  any  of  its  rivals.  Christianity  is  predominant 
only  in  the  Caucasian  race,  while  Islam  rules  in  the 
Mongolian,  the  Malayan  and  the  Negro.     Christianity 


32  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

is  supreme  only  in  the  Aryan  stock,  but  Islam  has 
become  predominant  in  the  Semitic  and  Hamitic  and 
some  branches  of  the  Turanian.  Few  people  are  aware 
how  rapidly  Islam  is  gaining  both  in  Asia  and  in 
Africa ;  in  India,  where  it  numbers  fifty-seven  millions 
of  adherents;  in  Southern  China,  where  it  numbers 
twenty  millions ;  in  Java,  where  it  numbered,  more 
than  ten  years  ago,  nearly  seventeen  thousand  schools, 
and  a  quarter  of  million  pupils ;  in  the  Malay  Penin- 
sula and  adjacent  islands,  where  thirty  millions  of  Mos- 
lems send  fifteen  thousand  pilgrims  to  Mecca  in  a 
single  year ;  in  the  Soudan,  where  paganism  has  been 
nearly  wiped  out,  and  where  more  than  fifty  millions 
of  Moslems  are  found,  an  aggressive  missionary  force 
in  the  heart  of  Africa ;  in  the  Congo  basin,  where  the 
strongest  power  is  Moslem  ;  in  the  great  regions  about 
the  Central  African  lakes,  where  Moslem  fanaticism  is 
bringing  native  Christians  to  the  stake ;  and  still  far- 
ther South,  where  some  of  the  black  tribes  conduct 
their  funerals  with  Mohammedan  rites,  and  where  the 
grave  is  always  turned  toward  Mecca. 

We  are  instructed  on  the  best  authority,  that  in  the 
northern  half  of  Africa,  the  Arabian  prophet  is  supreme, 
and  that  all  its  roads  lead  toward  the  Arabian  city  :  that 
the  Christianity,  feeble  and  mechanical,  which  has  long 
prevailed  in  the  Dark  Continent,  is  no  match  for  its 
more  aggressive  rival,  and  that  the  purer  faith  which 
modern  missions  have  established  has  thus  far  but  a 
feeble  hold  compared  with  that  of  the  disciples  of  the 
Koran.  Looking  over  the  face  of  the  world,  we  find 
that  the  chief  Mohammedan  capital  is  still  in  Europe, 
and  that  Constantinople,  itself  the  Gordian  knot  of 
human  politics,  is  the  symbol  and  memorial  of  the  long 


THE  CROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       33 

and  bitter  struggle  between  the  Cross  and  the  Crescent. 
The  Turk  still  dominates  the  city,  above  whose  stately 
dome  of  St.  Sophia,  built  by  Justinian,  to  rival  the 
temple  of  Solomon,  now  gleams  for  many  miles  over 
the  blue  waters  of  the  Marmora,  the  defiant  symbol  of 
the  Arabian  prophet,  the  gold  which  covers  it  sufficient 
for  the  ransom  of  a  hundred  slaves.  As  a  political 
power,  Mohammedanism  is  declining.  In  the  last  two 
centuries  the  Turk  has  lost,  one  after  another,  Hun- 
gary, Transylvania,  Croatia,  Bessarabia,  Servia,  Greece, 
Muldavia,  Wallachia,  Bosnia,  Bulgaria,  Bumelia,  Thes- 
saly,  Algeria,  Tunis,  Cyprus,  Massoah,  and  Egypt.  But 
where  the  grasp  of  the  Sultan  has  been  lost  or  relaxed 
Mohammedanism  still  flourishes. 

When  in  Paris  two  years  ago,  I  was  greatly  impressed 
by  the  interest,  I  might  almost  say,  the  enthusiastic 
interest,  which  Father  Hyacinthe  felt  for  the  faith  of 
Islam  as  it  appears  in  Northern  Africa.  Like  our  own 
Dr.  Henry  M.  Field,  he  had  seen  the  brighter  sides  of 
Mohammedan  life  among  the  Algerines  and  others,  and 
he  contrasted  the  corrupted  Christendom  with  which  he 
was  familiar  in  Paris  with  the  simpler  faith  of  the  men 
of  the  desert.  He  described  a  scene  which  he  had  wit- 
nessed, which  made  a  great  impression  on  his  mind, 
and  which  must  impress  us  all.  It  was  on  Friday,  the 
Mussulman's  Sabbath,  that  he  was  in  a  city  in  the  em- 
pire of  Morocco,  and  he  entered  the  great  mosque,  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  which  the  art  and  faith  of  man 
have  built  to  God,  and  there  were  in  it  none  of  those 
superfluous  and  often  superstitious,  not  to  say  idolatrous 
ornaments,  which  in  many  Christian  temples  wound  at 
the  same  time  the  sentiment  of  the  beautiful,  the  senti- 
ment of  the  true,  and  the  more  august  sentiment  of  re- 
3 


34  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

ligion;  but  the  temple  was  full  of  worshippers.  "In 
our  Christian  churches  in  France,"  he  said,  "  we  ordi- 
narily see  only  women,  as  if  religion  were  not  virile  and 
reasonable  enough  for  others,  but  in  that  mosque  I  saw 
two  thousand  men,  two  thousand  warriors  mingled  to- 
gether without  distinction  of  rank.  The  red  cloaks  of 
the  chiefs  touched  the  rags  of  the  poor.  There,  in  that 
theocracy,  which  is  at  the  same  time  a  democracy,  the 
most  absolute  equality  unites  believers.  The  voice  of 
the  Iman  rose  at  the  farther  extremity  of  the  mosque. 
He  was  not  a  priest,  for  in  this  religion,  so  enthusias- 
tic and  such  a  mistress  of  souls,  which  has  lived  more 
than  twelve  hundred  years,  there  are  no  clergy.  All 
believers  are  priests.  The  assembly  responded  to  the 
appeal,  sometimes  prostrated  on  the  earth,  sometimes 
with  faces  turned  heavenward,  but  always  in  a  sort  of 
ecstacy  ;  these  children  of  the  desert  and  of  the  Koran, 
these  Arabs,  half  monks  and  half  soldiers,  cried  out 
with  one  voice  and  with  one  heart,  "  Allah  is  Allah  and 
Mohammed  is  His  prophet."  This  cry  shook  the  mosque 
as  formerly  it  shook  the  world.  "  Yes,  God  is  God," 
said  the  eloquent  preacher  of  France,  "  and  woe  be  to 
men  who  think  themselves  civilized  and  free  and  do  not 
know  better  than  to  blaspheme  His  great  Name,  or  to 
remand  it  to  silence."  Spiritual  vision  is  still  there, 
with  the  children  of  the  desert,  and  God  will  yet  use  it 
for  sublime  purposes.  Islam  rebukes  Christendom ; 
that  powerful  discipline  of  souls,  it  has  been  said,  "  does 
not  count  a  single  rebel  among  its  disciples,  that  is  to 
say,  not  a  single  atheist." 

Thus  it  is  not  hard  to  explain  the  fact  that  the  Cres- 
cent, rather  than  the  Cross,  rules  to-day  in  the  lands  of 
Western  Asia,  the  mother-lands  of  civilization,  and  Mo- 


THE  CROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       35 

liammedanism  is  by  no  reason  confined  to  Western 
Asia.  At  the  hour  of  prayer,  from  the  minarets  of  the 
great  cities  of  China,  and  of  Benares  and  Delhi  in  Hin- 
dostan,  from  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  where  Cairo  lifts 
her  beautiful  spires  in  the  unclouded  air,  and  through- 
out the  deserts  and  forests  of  Africa,  and  even  from  the 
confines  of  Liberia,  where  boys  but  sixteen  years  of  age 
have  been  taught  to  repeat  the  whole  Koran  from  mem- 
ory, faces  are  turned,  as  they  were  turned  four  years 
ago  in  the  fragile  mosques  of  the  Columbian  Fair,  to- 
ward the  Holy  Temple  in  Mecca  ;  and  in  any  accurate 
division  of  the  faiths  of  the  world,  one-seventh  of  its 
inhabitants  must  be  enrolled  among  those  who  mingle 
heavenly  truth  and  something  of  human  error  in  saying, 
"  There  is  but  one  God,  and  Mohammed  is  His  proph- 
et." The  chief  schools  of  Protestant  Christianity  in 
Moslem  lands  are  in  Constantinople  and  Beirut,  but 
they  seem  small  and  feeble  compared  with  the  Moslem 
university  in  Cairo,  with  its  ten  thousand  students  ready 
to  carry  the  faith  of  Islam  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  We 
of  America  are  deeply  concerned  in  the  great  spiritual 
conflict  between  the  Cross  and  the  Crescent,  for  in  the 
providence  of  God  the  only  great  Moslem  empire  now 
left  in  the  world  is  largely  given  over  to  the  care  of 
American  Christians,  and  a  new  crusade  is  in  progress 
in  which  the  weapons  are  schools  and  preachers  and 
printing-presses,  arms  which,  in  the  end,  will  be  found 
more  effective  than  the  swords  and  lances  of  English 
and  Burgundian  knights,  employed  in  the  old  Crusades. 
What  are  the  facts  now  known  in  regard  to  the  founder 
of  Islam  ?  We  have  no  legends  to  trouble  us,  and  St. 
Hilaire  has  said  that  "  the  French  are  far  less  acquaint- 
ed with  Charlemagne  than  the  Moslems  are  with  their 


36  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

prophet  who  came  two  centuries  earlier."  He  was  born, 
as  I  have  said,  about  five  hundred  and  seventy  years 
after  the  appearance  of  the  world's  Saviour.  As  Jesus 
was  the  great  reformer  of  Judaism,  calling  men  back  to 
spiritual  worship,  so  Mohammed  appeared  at  a  time 
when  the  Christian  Church  was  torn  with  dissensions 
and  corrupted  both  in  doctrine  and  life.  He  appeared, 
therefore,  as  a  prophet  of,  in  some  respects,  a  more  spir- 
itual faith.  To  a  depraved  Christianity  he  was  a  scourge. 
Bishop  Prideaux  has  expressed  the  belief  that  "  the 
new  religion  was  raised  up  to  punish  the  Church  which 
had  wrangled  away  the  substance  of  Christianity  in  ma- 
licious and  contemptible  controversies."  While  Chris- 
tendom was  distracted  with  strife  and  given  over  to 
superstition,  Mohammed,  "  with  the  sword  in  one  hand 
and  the  Koran  in  the  other,  erected  his  throne  on  the 
ruins  of  Christianity  and  of  Rome."  Mohammedans 
say :  "We  have  lived  among  Christians  for  twelve  hun- 
dred years,  and  we  want  no  such  religion  as  theirs." 
And,  when  American  Protestant  missionaries  first  went 
to  Turkey,  the  Turks  often  said,  "  Why,  these  are  true 
Moslems ! "  A  missionary  wrote  from  Cairo,  "  The 
commonest  Fellah  feels  himself  far  superior  to  the  most 
learned  Christian  from  a  religious  and  moral  point  of 
view,  for  he  considers  the  latter  to  be  an  idolater,  wor- 
shipping three  Gods,  and  pretending  that  God  was 
born  of  a  woman,  while  he,  the  Mohammedan,  knows 
that  Allah  is  one,  and  Him  alone  he  worships."  While 
I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Christian  populations  in  the 
Turkish  Empire,  with  all  their  defects,  are  superior  to 
the  average  Turk,  yet  the  evil  specimens  are  so  nu- 
merous that  one  careful  observer  writes  that  "  those 
found   in   the   deepest  depths  of  drunkenness,  deceit, 


TUB  CROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       37 

irreverence,  and  corruption  are  oftener  Christians  than 
Turks." 

Mohammed  was  born  in  the  city  of  Mecca.  He  was 
the  child  of  Arabia  ;  he  came  from  the  tribe  of  Koresh, 
the  family  of  Hasham,  princes  of  Mecca.  The  holy  city 
which  gave  him  birth,  unlike  Bethlehem  or  Nazareth, 
was  distinguished  for  its  wealth  and  warlike  spirit,  and 
had  long  been  governed  by  the  family  of  Koreshites, 
from  whom  he  himself  sprang.  The  Arabians  were  then 
a  nation  of  idolaters,  worshipping  the  sun  and  stars,  and 
all  turning  toward  Mecca  and  her  ancient  temple,  the 
Kaaba,  as  to  the  shrine  of  the  greatest  sanctity,  though 
defiled  by  three  hundred  and  sixty  images  of  eagles, 
men,  antelopes  and  lions.  Mohammed's  mother  was  of 
Jewish  birth,  and  his  father,  Abdallah,  has  been  called 
the  most  beautiful  and  modest  of  Arabian  youth.  Both 
parents  died  when  Mohammed  was  in  infancy,  and  the 
orphan  was  placed  under  the  guardianship  of  his  uncle, 
Abu  Taleb.  From  boyhood  he  was  given  to  heavenly 
conversation,  wandering  the  deserts  in  melancholy  medi- 
tations. Distinguished  for  his  personal  beauty,  he  was 
polite,  respectful,  judicious,  courageous  in  thought  and 
action,  and,  though  he  could  neither  read  nor  write,  he 
became  a  master  of  vigorous,  though  often  perplexed 
and  halting  Arabian  speech. 

In  the  birth  of  Mohammedanism  we  have,  as  Eenan 
has  said,  "  the  strange  spectacle  of  a  religion  coming 
into  being  in  the  clear  light  of  day."  Wo  behold  its 
founder  both  inheriting  and  creating  those  convictions 
which  he  molded  into  the  system  bearing  his  name, 
claiming  that  what  he  said  was  not  new  but  old,  and 
yet  receiving  additional  revelations  for  the  guidance  of 
mankind.     His  nature  was  strongly  religious  and  natu- 


38  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

rally  high  and  pure,  and  we  are  not  surprised  that,  when 
he  discovered  the  guardians  of  the  sacred  temple  in 
Mecca  to  be  covetous  deceivers,  his  heart  turned  from 
their  corrupt  superstitions.  Here  and  there  he  found 
others  who  rejected  the  immoralities  and  idolatries  of 
Arabia  ;  these  men  were  called  Haniffs  or  penitents, 
and  the  source  of  their  faith  or  their  movement  may 
have  been  Jewish  Essenism  or  Christian  asceticism. 
Professor  Wellhausen  believes  that  the  Christian  anchor- 
ites, "  nameless  witnesses  of  the  Gospel,  unmentioned 
in  Church  history,  scattered  the  seed  from  which  sprang 
the  germ  of  Islam."  The  dependence  of  the  Koran  on 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  has  been  discussed  before 
you  by  Henry  Preserved  Smith,  with  careful  and  schol- 
arly discrimination.  Professor  Kuenen  thinks  that  we 
would  not  be  far  from  the  truth  in  saying  that  "  Islam 
is  the  kernel  of  Judaism  transplanted  to  Arabian  soil," 
and  yet  he  would  emphasize  the  vast  personal  influence 
which  came  from  the  prophet  himself.  There  was  no 
general  longing  on  the  part  of  the  Arabian  people  for 
something  higher  in  the  matter  of  religion ;  such  a  need 
was  felt  by  only  a  small  circle  in  a  very  small  measure. 
"  In  one  word,"  says  Professor  Kuenen,  "  remove  Mo- 
hammed, and  neither  Islam  nor  anything  like  it  comes 
into  existence."  ("The  Hibbert  Lectures,"  p.  21.)  Mo- 
hammed secured  some  knowledge,  however  imperfect, 
of  the  Jewish  and  Christian  faiths.  In  his  mercantile 
expeditions  he  came  into  contact  with  the  disciples  of 
Moses  and  of  Jesus.  We  know  that  his  information 
was  often  erroneous  and,  being  himself  no  scholar,  he 
could  not  distinguish  truth  from  error.  He  even  gained 
the  idea  that  the  Trinity  consisted  of  the  Father,  the 
Son   and  the   Virgin   Mary.     But  beyond  all  that  he 


THE  CROSS  AND  THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       39 

learned  was  what  he  himself  was — a  Semite,  with  a  strong, 
high  and  pure  spirit.  We  must  feel  that  he,  at  least,  if 
not  his  race,  was  naturally  monotheistic.  God  was  to 
him  the  greatest  of  facts,  and  from  Nature,  from  prayer, 
from  special  revelation,  from  the  ever- moving  and 
quickening  spirit  of  God,  as  well  as  from  the  imperfect 
teachers  whose  lives  touched  and  influenced  his  own,  he 
appears  to  have  gained  that  enthusiasm  for  the  one  God 
which  was  the  heart  of  his  religion  and  the  master-pas- 
sion of  his  better  years. 

There  came  a  supreme  crisis  in  his  life.  "He  used  to 
wander  about  the  hills  alone,  brooding  over  these  things ; 
he  shunned  the  society  of  men ;  and  solitude  became  a 
passion  to  him.  At  length  came  the  crisis.  He  was 
spending  the  sacred  months  at  Mount  Hira,  a  huge, 
barren  rock,  torn  by  cleft  and  hollow  ravine,  standing 
out  solitary  in  the  full  white  glare  of  the  desert  sun, 
shadowless,  flowerless,  without  well  or  rill.  Here,  in  a 
cave,  Mohammed  gave  himself  up  to  prayer  and  fasting. 
Long  months,  or  even  years,  of  doubt  had  increased  his 
nervous  excitability.  He  had  had,  they  say,  cataleptic 
fits  in  his  childhood,  and  was  evidently  more  deli- 
cately and  finely  constituted  than  those  around  him. 
These  were  the  circumstances  in  which,  according  to  the 
tradition  of  the  cave,  Mohammed  heard  a  voice  say, 
'  Cry  ! '     '  What  shall  I  cry  ?  '  he  answered. 

*  Cry  !  In  the  name  of  thy  Lord  who  created, 
Created  man  froni  blood, 
Cry  !  for  thy  Lord  is  the  bountifullest, 
Who  taught  the  pen, 
Taught  man  what  he  did  not  know. ' 

Mohammed  arose  trembling  and  went  to  his  wife,  Kha- 
dijeh,  and  told  her  what  he  had  heard.     She  believed 


40  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

in  him,  soothed  his  terror,  and  bade  him  hope  for  the 
future." 

One  day,  when  on  the  point  of  taking  his  own  life  in 
a  fit  of  despondency,  he  is  said  to  have  heard  the  voice 
and  to  have  seen  the  form  of  Gabriel,  who  assured  him 
that  he  was  indeed  a  prophet  of  God  to  bring  a  message 
of  good  tidings  to  Arabia.  And,  on  his  recovery,  he  re- 
fused to  doubt  the  angel  had  spoken  the  truth.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-five  he  had  entered  the  service  of  Khadi- 
jeh,  a  rich  widow  of  Mecca,  who  had  given  him  her 
hand  in  marriage.  Mohammed  was  three  years  in  mak- 
ing fourteen  converts  to  the  new  faith.  Among  them 
were  his  wife,  who  desired  the  glory  of  her  husband,  his 
slave,  Zeyd,  who  was  tempted  by  the  hope  of  freedom, 
his  cousin  Ali,  and  his  friend  and  destined  successor 
Abu  Bekr,  people  of  his  own  household,  unlike  the  fam- 
ily of  the  Prophet  of  Nazareth,  who  believed  Him  not. 
There  is  no  doubt  about  the  sincerity,  however,  of  these 
first  converts.  It  was  very  hard  for  him  to  make  any 
impression  on  the  idolatrous  corruption  around  him. 
But  the  infant  congregation  gradually  increased,  partly 
by  the  conversion  of  strangers  who  flocked  into  Mecca. 
For  ten  years  he  toiled  in  the  spiritual  capital  of  Ara- 
bia, and,  after  five  years  of  preaching,  when  persecution 
from  the  fanaticism  of  the  Koreshites  arose,  he  sent 
away  fifteen  of  his  flock  into  Abyssinia,  and  these  were 
followed  by  others.  The  Koresh  demanded  their  extra- 
dition. The  Abyssinian  king  called  the  exiles  together, 
and  inquired  if  there  was  any  reason  why  they  should 
not  be  sent  back.  And  they  replied  to  him,  in  a  full 
assembly  of  the  bishops,  "  O  King !  we  lived  in  igno- 
rance, idolatry,  and  unchastity ;  the  strong  oppressed 
the  weak ;  we  spoke  untruth ;  we  violated  the  duties  of 


THE  GROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       41 

hospitality.  Then  a  prophet  arose,  one  whom  we  knew 
from  our  youth,  with  whose  descent,  conduct,  and  good 
faith  and  morality  we  were  all  well  acquainted.  He 
taught  us  to  worship  one  God,  to  speak  truth,  to  keep 
good  faith,  to  assist  our  relations,  to  fulfil  the  rites  of 
hospitality,  and  to  abstain  from  all  thiugs  impure,  un- 
godly, unrighteous  ;  and  he  ordered  us  to  say  our  pray- 
ers, to  give  alms,  and  to  fast.  AVe  believed  in  him,  and 
followed  him.  But  our  countrymen  persecuted  us  and 
tortured  us,  and  tried  to  cause  us  to  forsake  our  relig- 
ion. And  now  we  throw  ourselves  upon  thy  protection. 
Wilt  thou  not  protect  us?  "  Then  a  part  of  the  Koran 
was  recited  which  spoke  of  Christ,  and  the  king  and 
the  bishops  wept  upon  their  beards,  and  the  king  refused 
to  send  back  the  refugees. 

But  the  persecution  in  Mecca  grew  hotter  and  hotter. 
Mohammed's  uncle,  old  Abu  Taleb,  withdrew  his  pro- 
tection, and  entreated  him  not  to  cast  upon  him  too 
heavy  a  burden.  Mohammed  would  not,  however,  bo 
false  to  the  voice  in  his  soul,  which  commanded  him  to 
preach  God  to  his  countrymen.  He  turned  to  go  away 
from  his  uncle's  house,  where  he  thought  he  could  no 
longer  find  shelter,  but  Abu  Taleb  cried  out,  "Son  of 
my  brother,  come  back.  Say  what  thou  wilt,  I  will 
never  deliver  thee  up."  But  the  uncle  died  soon  after, 
and  his  wife  died,  and  Mecca  became  too  hostile  for  him 
to  remain.  His  life  was  in  daily  jeopardy,  and  he  fled 
from  Mecca  to  Medina  in  the  year  622,  the  Hegira,  as 
the  Mussulmans  call  it,  the  era  from  which  to-day  time 
is  reckoned  in  all  Mohammedan  nations.  If  ho  had 
been  put  to  death  by  the  fanatical  idolaters  at  this  time, 
Mohammed's  figure,  it  has  been  truly  said,  "would  have 
stood  out  in  history  as  that  of  a  prophet  and  martyr 


42  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

absolutely  without  reproach."  But  from  the  time  of  his 
reception  in  Medina  appears  to  begin  the  retrograde 
movement  in  Mohammed's  mind.  A  new  faith  and  a 
new  fanaticism  gathered  around  the  exiled  Apostle  of 
God.  His  followers  banded  themselves  together  to 
guard  him  against  all,  as  they  guarded  their  own  wives 
and  children.  For  ten  years  from  the  time  of  the  He- 
gira  Mohammed  lived  on,  discharging  the  functions  of 
law-giver,  statesman,  general,  judge,  and  king.  In  the 
earlier  period  he  had  enjoined  toleration  ;  he  had  said, 
"  Let  there  be  no  compulsion  in  religion."  His  spirit 
was  kindly,  gentle  and  forbearing.  "  But  so  soon  as  he 
gained  power,  he  found  himself  supported  by  a  host  of 
warriors  ready  at  his  call,  and  he  saw  it  expedient  to 
turn  aside  from  the  paths  of  peace  and  moderation  into 
those  of  war,  marauding  and  plunder."  He  modified 
his  high  demands  of  justice,  truth  and  mercy,  and,  far 
worse  than  this,  proved  that  possession  of  absolute 
power  was  able  to  corrupt  one  of  the  bravest  of  all  the 
prophets.  "  Though  restricting  to  four  the  number  of 
wives  the  faithful  might  possess,  he  himself  had  at  one 
time  in  his  harem  nine  wives  and  two  slave  girls.  He 
invoked  new  revelation  from  God  to  sanction  this 
frailty."  (Principal  Grant,  "Religions  of  the  World," 
p.  24.) 

Even  worse  than  this,  he  became  a  cruel  persecutor 
and  a  propagandist  by  the  sword.  "If  we  are  killed 
in  your  name,"  said  the  deputies  from  Medina,  "  what 
will  be  the  reward?  "  "Paradise,"  he  replied.  Estab- 
lished in  Medina,  Mohammed  assumed  royal  and  priestly 
offices.  Arabs  from  every  sandy  plain  flocked  to  his 
standard,  attracted  in  part  by  the  hope  of  plunder  and 
excited  by  the  Prophet's  words  to  fanaticism.     How  dif- 


TEE  CROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA      43 

ferent  the  spirit  with  which  Jesus  preached  in  Galilee, 
and  with  which  his  disciples,  in  the  first  century  at 
least,  carried  His  Gospel  into  almost  every  land !  "  The 
sword,"  said  Mohammed,  "  is  the  key  to  heaven  and 
hell.  A  drop  of  blood  shed  in  the  cause  of  God  is  of 
more  avail  than  two  months  of  fasting  and  prayer." 
He  now  declared  war  against  the  infidels  ;  he  subdued 
the  Jews  in  Arabia,  and,  finally,  received  the  submission 
of  Mecca ;  so  that  after  seven  years  of  exile  he  was  en- 
throned as  Prince  and  Prophet  in  his  own  country. 
Beholding  his  former  enemies  at  his  feet,  he  treated 
them  with  great  cruelty.  Many  were  assassinated  by 
his  order.  When  one  of  his  foes  was  brought  before 
him  for  execution,  the  man  said  :  "  Who  will  take  care 
of  my  little  girl?"  "Hell -fire!  said  Mohammed. 
Seven  or  eight  hundred  Jewish  prisoners,  who  had  sur- 
rendered at  discretion,  were  by  his  order  executed ; 
their  wives  and  children  sold  as  slaves,  Mohammed  se- 
lecting one  of  these  wives  for  himself.  In  the  midst  of 
his  cruelty,  Mohammed  was  faithful  to  one  part  of  his 
mission.  The  three  hundred  and  sixty  idols  in  the  tem- 
ple at  Mecca  were  broken  and  the  temple  was  purified. 
In  the  eleventh  year  of  the  Hegira,  Arabia  was  subdued 
and  Mohammed  passed  away.  But  he  had  planted  his 
spirit  in  the  very  heart  of  his  nation,  and  his  life  is  re- 
peated and  continued  in  its  moral  peculiarities  down  to 
this  age.  I  think  Mohammedanism  has  been  the  per- 
petuation of  the  virtues  and  vices  of  its  founder.  The 
Bev.  Edward  Sell  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society, 
whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  in  Madras,  and 
who  is  one  of  the  ablest  and  best  equipped  controver- 
salists  on  the  subject  of  Islam,  affirms  that  the  sunnat 
or  law,  that  the  words  and  deeds  of  Mohammed  furnish 


44  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

an  authoritative  rule  of  life,  is  accepted  by  all  sects  of 
Mohammedans.  It  is  the  condemnation  of  Islam  that 
"  the  life  of  Mohammed  must  be  made  a  standard  for  all 
men,  all  lands  and  all  time." 

The  prophet  of  Islam  was  a  man  of  great  intellectual 
vigor,  of  naturally  sincere,  devout  and  lofty  mind,  whom 
opposition  changed  into  a  persecuting  fanatic,  not  worse 
however,  than  Torquemada,  or  the  Duke  of  Alva  and 
many  others  who  have  borne  the  Christian  name ;  and 
instead  of  growing  better  with  age,  he  grew  worse,  and 
he  who  had  been  in  early  manhood  the  faithful  husband 
of  one  wife,  as  he  grew  older,  conformed  more  nearly  to 
the  vicious  habits  prevailing  among  the  Arabian  polyg- 
amists.  He  represented  a  higher  type  of  morality  than 
the  national  Arabian  thought  had  reached,  and  he  ap- 
peared as  the  prophet  of  a  more  spiritual  religion,  and 
a  reformer  of  abuses.  "  The  restrictions  of  polygamy 
and  recommendation  of  monogamy ;  the  institution  of 
prohibited  degrees  against  the  horrible  laxity  of  Ara- 
bian marriages ;  the  limitations  of  divorce  and  strin- 
gent rules  as  to  the  support  of  divorced  women  during 
a  certain  period  by  their  former  husbands  and  as  to  the 
maintenance  of  children ;  the  innovation  of  creating 
women  heirs-at-law,  though  only  to  half  the  value  of 
men ;  the  abolition  of  the  custom  which  treated  a  man's 
widow  as  a  part  of  his  heritable  chattels  ;  " — these  were 
changes  for  the  better  as  radical  as  he  could  then  make. 

But  his  chief  power  over  men  sprang  from  his  pro- 
phetic grasp  of  a  great  truth,  his  intense  fiery  conviction 
of  it,  his  whole-souled  response  to  the  reality  of  a  per- 
sonal God,  the  Sovereign  of  the  world.  "  Islam,"  says 
Carlyle,  "  means  that  we  must  submit  to  God  .  .  . 
to  know  and  believe  well,  that  the  stern  thing  which 


THE  CROSS  AND  THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       45 

necessity  has  ordered,  was  the  wisest,  the  best.  .  .  . 
This  is  the  soul  of  Islam ;  it  is  properly  the  soul  of 
Christianity,  for  Islam  is  definable  as  a  confused  form 
of  Christianity."  We  believe,  however,  that  Christian- 
ity means  far  more  than  this,  and  yet  we  must  not  fail 
to  recognize  the  deep  spiritual  significance  of  that 
movement  by  which  Mohammed  created  a  nation  and 
turned  its  people  into  zealous  propagandists  of  the 
faith.  Grafted  into  this  spiritual  stock  were  other 
forces  which  soon  corrupted  what  was  originally  pure  ; 
the  forces  that  spring  from  the  love  of  conquest,  plunder 
and  pleasure.  These  spiritual  and  un spiritual  powers 
linked  together  made  the  disciples  of  Mohammed  per- 
haps the  most  terrific  military  host  ever  let  loose  upon 
the  world.  Within  a  century  and  a  half  after  the  death 
of  the  prophet,  they  had  swept  in  desolating  conquest 
through  Egypt,  along  the  northern  shores  of  Africa, 
through  Spain,  and  had  pushed  like  a  wedge  of  steel,  or 
a  sword  of  fire,  into  the  heart  of  France.  Christendom 
appeared  about  to  succumb,  and  would  have  succumbed, 
but  for  the  iron  arm  of  Charles  Martel.  More  than 
seven  centuries,  however,  elapsed  before  the  Moors  were 
driven  from  Spain,  after  they  had  filled  that  land  with 
traditions  of  intellectual  glory  and  martial  prowess  and 
artistic  achievement,  which  are  among  the  brightest  in 
the  history  of  Islam.  The  greatest  event  of  the  Middle 
Ages  was  the  uprising  of  the  Christian  nations  of  Europe 
to  deliver  the  Holy  Land  from  the  followers  of  the 
Arabian  prophet,  an  attempted  Christian  conquest  of 
Asia,  which  was  a  woful  relapse  from  the  spirit  and 
aim  of  the  apostles  of  Christ.  Inspired  by  the  perse- 
cutions of  Christians,  by  the  fanaticism  of  monks,  by 
the  ambition  of  popes  and  kings,  crusade  after  crusade 


46  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

swept  to  the  walls  of  Joppa  and  Jerusalem.  History 
lias  few  romances  to  equal  that  which  clings  to  the 
career  of  Richard  of  the  Lion  Heart,  and  to  the  heroic 
defences  of  Malta  and  Rhodes  by  the  Christian  knights 
against  their  Moslem  assailants.  There  is  a  military 
splendor  in  both  the  triumphs  and  the  defeats  of  Islam, 
fascinating  to  the  imagination.  The  narrative  of  the 
Mussulman  arms  leads  us  to  the  lands  of  classic 
and  sacred  and  far  eastern  storv.  We  leave  Arabian 
sands  for  the  water-courses  of  the  Euphrates,  the  Jor- 
dan and  the  Nile.  We  see  the  fanatic  hordes  crossing 
the  Indus  and  conquering  Hindostan ;  we  see  the  cres- 
cent gleaming  from  the  towers  of  Agra  on  the  Jumna, 
as  well  as  of  Bagdad  on  the  Tigris.  We  see  old  Damas- 
cus becoming  the  centre  and  capital  of  a  Mohammedan 
empire,  reaching  from  the  Ganges  to  the  Rock  of  Gi- 
braltar. And  then  we  see  the  Ottomans  crossing  the 
Dardanelles  in  the  track  of  Xerxes.  We  see  the  isles 
of  Greece  and  the  Attic  mainland,  with  Athens  and  the 
Acropolis,  bowed  and  blasted  beneath  the  Turkish  con- 
querors. We  behold  the  Ottoman  arms  carried  in 
triumph  westward  to  the  walls  of  Vienna.  Panic  seizes 
on  Christian  Europe,  then  in  the  turmoil  of  the  Protest- 
ant Reformation.  The  Anglican  churches  read  from 
their  prayer-books  to-day  a  collect  which  has  in  it  a 
mark  of  the  terror  which  the  sword  of  Islam  once  in- 
spired :  "  Have  mercy  on  all  Jews,  Turks,  infidels,  and 
heretics,  and  take  from  them  all  ignorance,  hardness  of 
heart  and  contempt  of  Thy  Word." 

Mohammed  has  made  a  deep  mark  on  history.  We 
may  agree  with  Renan  and  say  :  "  Islamism,  following  as 
it  did  on  the  ground  that  was  not  of  the  best,  has,  on  the 
whole,  done  as  much  harm  as  good  to  the  human  race.    It 


THE  GROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       47 

lias  stifled  everything  by  its  dry  and  desolating  sim- 
plicity." We  may  agree,  I  said,  with  this  judgment,  but, 
we  do  well  to  discover  the  good  and  permanent  elements 
in  such  a  faith,  if  only  for  the  purpose  of  satisfying  the 
mind  and  securing  a  rational  explanation  of  so  tremen- 
dous a  phenomenon.  Mohammed's  chief  contribution 
to  the  world  is  the  Koran,  which  alone  is  sufficient  to 
prove  his  intellectual  and  moral  greatness.  Unlike  the 
Bible,  it  is  the  product  of  one  mind.  The  Holy  Script- 
ures come  to  us  from  many  inspired  men  in  many  ages, 
reflecting  all  forms  of  human  life ;  but  the  Koran  is  the 
work  of  one  man  and  reflects  his  moods  and  passions, 
and  policies  at  different  epochs  of  his  career.  We  can 
imagine  what  a  different  book  the  Christian  Scriptures 
would  be  had  they  been  composed  only  by  Jeremiah  or 
Ezekiel,  Peter  or  James.  Mohammed's  maxims  were 
diligently  recorded  by  his  disciples  on  bones  or  palm- 
leaves,  and  were  thrown  into  a  chest  which  was  kept  by 
one  of  his  wives.  Two  years  after  his  death,  these  relics 
were  collected  and  published  by  Abu  Bekr.  Such  is 
the  origin  of  the  Koran,  a  book  which,  to  many  Western 
minds,  appears  "an  endless  incoherent  rhapsody  of 
fable,  legend  and  declamation,"  but  which  shows  un- 
doubtedly frequent  moral  elevation  and  great  spiritual 
sublimity  ;  a  book  which  the  faithful  adore,  which  they 
believe  possesses  a  magical  charm  and  effect,  curing 
diseases  when  worn  as  an  amulet ;  a  book  too  sacred  to 
be  translated,  and  which  the  Moslem  ignorantly  deems 
superior  to  all  other  sacred  writings. 

This  volume  contains  all  the  theology  of  Islam  and 
also  its  civil  and  criminal  jurisprudence.  From  it  wo 
learn  that  God  has  made  six  revelations  to  man,  each 
better  than  the  former,  and  that  the  revelation  to  Mo- 


4:8  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

hammed  is  the  final  disclosure  of  God's  will.  He  is 
the  prophet  like  unto  Moses  who  was  promised ;  he  is 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter ;  he  is  the  mouthpiece 
of  God,  and  hence  the  words  of  the  Koran  are  fault- 
lessly perfect.  Containing  many  noble  truths  and 
sentiments,  this  book  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  con- 
science; it  affirms  the  intimate  communion  of  man  and 
God :  it  commends  charity,  truth,  and  patience  and  the 
return  of  good  for  evil ;  it  emboldens  the  penitent  to 
cry  out  in  faith  to  his  Creator;  it  enjoins  humility 
and  tenderness.  From  it  might  be  gathered,  by  the 
careful  omission  of  unworthy  portions,  a  noble  system 
of  ethics,  not  complete  but  still  exalted.  The  moral 
code  of  Mohammedanism  requires  honesty,  modesty, 
benevolence,  fraternity  among  Moslems ;  it  forbids 
profanity,  gambling,  false  oaths  and  the  use  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors.  It  expressly  sanctions  polygamy  in  the 
fourth  and  twenty-third  suras,  and,  while  it  gives  to 
women  a  position  of  inferiority,  there  is  no  truth  what- 
ever in  the  statement  that,  according  to  the  Koran, 
women  have  no  souls,  no  rights  and  no  hope  of  immor- 
tality. 

Mohammedanism  has  a  vital  centre  of  truth,  the 
highest  truth,  which  heathenism  did  not  know,  and 
Christianity,  as  it  existed  in  the  Orient,  was  in  danger 
of  smothering;  the  doctrine  of  God's  unity,  the 
truth  which  Moses,  and  Abraham,  and  David  taught 
and  which  Christ  re-affirmed,  "  The  Lord,  our  God  is 
one  God."  The  Eastern  Church  and  the  Roman  Church 
had  surrounded  the  throne  of  Jehovah  with  a  crowd  of 
saints  and  angels  that  obscured  the  pure  vision  of  the 
one  everlasting  Jehovah.  The  sanctuaries  were  filled, 
and  are  to-day  filled  with  painted  and  graven  images 


THE  CROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       49 

which  impaired  true  worship ;  and  in  contrast  with  these 
errors,  Mohammed  taught  the  spirituality  and  the  unity 
of  God,  and  this  truth  has  been  the  source  of  the  deep, 
inner  life  which  has  undoubtedly  prevailed  in  Islam. 
No  wonder  that  Moslems  have  been  wont  to  regard  Asi- 
atic Christianity  as  an  inferior  faith.  Gibbon  has  said 
that  "  if  Peter  and  Paul  could  return  to  the  Vatican 
they  would  wonder  what  is  the  name  of  the  deity  there 
worshipped,  with  such  mysterious  rites,  in  that  magnifi- 
cent temple ! " 

The  same  impression  of  God  which  Mohammed 
stamped  on  the  Arabian  mind  is  found  to-day  among 
all  the  disciples  of  the  Koran  from  the  Congo  to  the 
Ganges  and  the  Yangtse,  and  seems  embodied  even  in 
Moslem  architecture.  It  is  this  sincerity  of  faith  in  one 
God,  this  consciousness  of  having  the  truth,  combined 
with  reverence  for  Mohammed  as  a  later  teacher  than 
Christ,  and  coupled  also  with  an  age-long  contempt  and 
hate  of  corrupt  Christianity,  that  makes  it  almost  im- 
possible to  bring  a  Mussulman  over  to  the  Christian 
faith.  Islam  has  had  a  providential  mission  already, 
and  so  long  as  large  sections  of  Christendom  present 
even  the  appearance  of  polytheism  and  idolatry,  Mo- 
hammedanism will  be  an  impenetrable  bulwark  against 
the  subjugation  of  the  world  by  these  lower  types  of 
Christianity.  There  may  be  a  great  providential  mis- 
sion yet  reserved  for  Ishmael  and  Ishmael's  greatest 
son.  The  second  best  of  religions  is  a  mighty  obstacle 
to  the  second  best  forms  of  our  Christian  faith.  It  is 
certainly  impossible,  I  emphatically  repeat,  for  the  Ro- 
man Church,  with  its  apparent  deification  of  Mary,  and 
with  its  varieties  of  semi-idolatry,  ever  to  conquer  the 

globe,  so  long  as  Mohammedanism,  with  its  teaching  of 
4 


50  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

the  spirituality  of  God  and  its  stern  monotheism  ob- 
structs the  way. 

Bishop  Southgate,  long  a  missionary  bishop  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States,  says :  "I  have 
often  met  with  Mussulmans  who  seem  to  possess  deep 
religious  feeling,  and  with  whom  I  could  exercise  some- 
thing of  a  religious  communion.  I  have  sometimes  had 
my  own  mind  quickened  and  benefited  by  the  reverence 
with  which  they  spoke  of  the  Deity,  and  have  sometimes 
mingled  in  harmonious  converse  with  them  on  holy 
things."  The  recorded  experiences  and  ecstacies  of  Mo- 
hammedan saints  in  the  contemplation  of  God,  remind  us 
now  and  then  of  the  Christian  mystics  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
In  Cairo  I  had  long  conversations  with  the  chief  of  the 
religious  organization  of  Islam  in  Egypt,  Es  Seyd  El- 
Bakri,  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  first  Caliph,  Abu 
Bekr,  a  learned  and  progressive  Moslem  of  great  court- 
esy and  modesty  who  appreciates  the  spiritual  life 
which  he  discovers  in  true  Christians,  because  he  evi- 
dently has  spiritual  life  in  himself.  Dr.  Washburn,  of 
Bobert  College,  said  to  us  at  the  Parliament  of  Relig- 
ions, that  many  Moslems  do  attain  some  degree  at  least 
of  what  Christians  mean  by  spiritual  life,  and  he  quotes 
the  hymn  of  the  Turkish  Moslem  lady  at  Constantinople  : 

"  O  Source  of  Kindness  and  of  Love, 
Who  givest  aid  all  hopes  above, 
Mid  grief  and  guilt  although  I  grope, 
From  thee  I'll  ne'er  cut  off  my  hope, 
My  Lord,  O  my  Lord  !  " 

It  is  a  strange  world  in  which  we  find  ourselves,  with 
truth  and  error,  light  and  darkness  so  constantly  inter- 
mingled.    Nothing  will  profit  us  but  the  truth.     Wo 


THE  CROSS  AND   TUB  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       51 

cherish  a  purer  form  of  Christianity,  and  do  well  to 
carry  it  into  the  lands  where  the  Arabian  prophet  is 
revered.  We  know  that  we  have  the  better,  completer 
conception  and  revelation  of  God,  and  the  higher  and 
purer  idea  of  manhood  and  womanhood  which  have 
come  through  Jesus  Christ.  But  we  must  not  forget 
that  the  average  Christianity  of  the  last  fifteen  hundred 
years  is  not  the  Christianity  which  we  lovingly  cherish 
and  zealously  proclaim.  Why  should  the  Mohamme- 
dan look  down  on  the  Roman  and  Greek  Churches  as 
inferior  types  of  faith  unless  there  were  some  elements 
of  inferiority  in  them  ?  Are  we  sure  that  the  average 
Christianity,  which  has  met  Islam  with  fire  and  sword, 
has  been  any  striking  improvement  on  the  faith  of  the 
Moslem  ?  The  Christian  Churches  of  Egypt,  Abys- 
sinia and  of  Western  Asia  must  rank  in  missionary  zeal 
and  fervor  lower  than  Mohammedanism.  Christianity 
has  a  higher  creed  with  regard  to  woman,  and  with  re- 
gard to  social  virtues,  but  the  practices  which  have  pre- 
vailed in  the  last  thousand  years  have  not  contrasted 
very  favorably  with  the  social  ethics  of  Islam.  And, 
with  the  English  and  American  disclosures  of  the  last 
decade  fresh  in  our  mind,  we  may  not  feel  like  hurling 
any  enormous  pile  of  stones  even  at  Mohammedan 
homes,  where  the  circle  of  licit  relations  is  larger  than 
in  Christendom.  We  justly  talk  about  Christianity  and 
political  liberty,  but  freedom  is  the  achievement  of  the 
last  two  or  three  centuries.  "  Taking  all  the  Christian 
acres  together,  from  the  days  of  barbarous  Constant ine 
to  the  days  of  the  German  emperors  and  the  despotic 
kings  of  France  and  England,  remembering  that  Philip 
the  Second  and  Louis  the  Eleventh  and  Louis  the  Four- 
teenth  and   Napoleon   and  the  Czars  of   Russia  have 


52  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

borne  the  Christian  name,  we  are  not  so  bold  in  identi- 
fying political  freedom  with  the  long  course  of  Chris- 
tian history." 

But  you  say  that  Islam  was  propagated  by  the  sword. 
True.  If  Christians  and  Jews  submitted,  they  could 
retain  their  religion  by  paying  annual  tribute,  but  if 
they  resisted,  the  men  were  to  be  killed  and  the  women 
and  children  sold  as  slaves.  All  this  seems  to  us  dev- 
ilish, and,  thank  God,  Christendom  generally  has  out- 
grown the  persecuting  and  ferocious  intolerance  whose 
record  of  late  years  has  been  so  red  and  fiendish  on  Ar- 
menian mountains  cold.  The  present  spirit  and  prac- 
tice of  Turkey  are  a  horrible  anachronism.  In  India  a 
Mohammedan  may  become  a  Christian  and  not  lose  his 
life,  for  India  is  ruled  by  a  Christian  nation,  which, 
with  all  its  faults,  is  the  chief  champion  of  toleration  in 
the  world.  During  my  visit  in  Calcutta,  Moslems  were 
received  into  the  London  Mission  Church.  But  in  Tur- 
key the  Mohammedan  who  becomes  a  Christian  is  a 
doomed  man.  Dr.  Lawrence  writes  :  "I  have  seen  a 
converted  Moslem  in  Turkey ;  it  was  a  woman,  who, 
after  great  persecution  was  living  in  comparative  free- 
dom at  Marsovan.  There  may  be  occasional  instances 
of  the  same  kind.  But,  if  the  convert  is  a  man,  he  sud- 
denly disappears.  He  is  drafted  into  the  army  and 
sent  to  a  distant  part  of  the  empire  whence  he  never 
returns."  ("Modern  Missions  in  the  East,"  p.  119.) 
The  nineteenth  century  revolts  against  this,  but  so-called 
Christians  have  a  record  which  is  dark  enough.  It  has 
been  truly  said  that  "  Central  Europe  was  converted  by 
the  sword  to  Christianity  as  truly  as  Central  Asia  or 
Africa  has  been  to  Islam."  It  took  Charles  the  Great 
thirty  years  to   convert   the   Saxons  with   the  sword. 


THE  CROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       53 

Islam  gives  three  alternatives  :  Islam,  tribute  or  the 
sword.  Christianity  gave  but  two:  baptism  or  the 
sword."  "  Teutons  and  Slavs  were  all  brought  to  the 
Cross  at  the  point  of  the  sword." 

Again,  one  of  the  great  tests  of  religion  is  its  treat- 
ment of  inferior  races.  Here  the  records  of  these  two 
faiths  are  almost  equally  black.  Christians  once  had 
the  monopoly  of  the  slave  trade  in  the  wrest  of  Africa. 
The  Moslems  have  since  followed  in  our  footsteps. 
Dutch  Protestants  in  Southern  Africa  "  for  two  hun- 
dred years  have  ruthlessly  ridden  over  every  right  of 
the  natives ;  they  have  seized  their  territory,  reduced 
the  people,  when  possible,  to  serfdom,  when  that  was 
impossible,  they  hunted  them  like  wild  beasts,  and  have 
literally  shot  them  on  sight,  like  game."  The  Moham- 
medan has  been,  in  some  respects,  more  merciful  than 
the  nominal  Christian,  and  more  democratic.  Horrible 
as  is  the  work  of  the  Moslem  slave-trader  in  Central 
Africa,  when  the  negro  is  converted  he  treats  him  like 
a  brother.  "  As  soon  as  the  negro  is  Islamized,  every 
position  is  open  to  him,  in  the  home,  in  the  mosque,  and 
in  the  state,  not  in  theory  alone,  but  in  free,  actual  ac- 
cepted fact."  "  In  India,  Africa  and  everywhere,  with 
Moslems  there  is  but  one  caste,  and  that  caste  is  Islam." 
The  most  deadly  foe  to  the  future  of  Africa  is  not  the 
slave-trader,  but  rum,  and  this  is  given  by  Christians, 
and  not  by  Mohammedan  hands.  Moslems  have  held 
an  anti-rum  congress  at  Khartoum,  and  it  ought  to  flush 
our  cheeks  with  shame  that  they  must  make  war  against 
a  trade  which  Christian  England  and  America  have  not 
had  the  courage  and  manliness  to  stamp  out.  In  the 
matter  of  total  abstinence,  average  Mohammedanism  is 
infinitely  superior  to  average  Christendom. 


54  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

But  we  do  not  reach  the  whole  truth,  until  we  con- 
trast a  pure  Christianity,  that  is  the  doctrine  of  Jesus 
Himself,  with  the  original  spirit  and  teachings  of  Islam. 
The  immeasurable  superiority  of  the  Prophet  of  Naza- 
reth over  the  prophet  of  Arabia  is  not  only  shown  by 
the  faultless  life  of  the  one,  set  off  against  the  mixed 
character  of  the  other,  but  also  in  the  fundamental 
teachings  regarding  God  and  man,  and  duty  and  eternal 
life.  Mohammed  and  Christ  both  teach  the  doctrine 
of  one  God,  but  Christ  gives  the  pre-eminence  to  the 
moral  and  not  to  the  natural  attributes  of  Jehovah. 
Mohammed's  God  is  an  Eastern  monarch,  Christ's  is 
our  Father  in  Heaven.  Mohammed's  God  is  far  re- 
moved from  us,  and  our  chief  duty  is  Islam,  or  sub- 
mission ;  the  Christian's  God  has  become  incarnate, 
one  with  us,  through  His  Son  and  His  Spirit ;  He  is 
sympathetic  and  friendly  and  open  to  our  fellowship. 
Though  Allah  is  called  the  Compassionate  and  Merci- 
ful, yet  He  is  a  God  afar  off.  "  The  people  know  no 
other  than  Him,"  says  Kuenen,  "  and  therefore  observe 
the  religious  duties  imposed  by  Him,  and  appear  at 
the  stated  time  at  the  House  of  Prayer ;  but  this  does 
not  satisfy  the  wants  of  the  heart,  and  the  people  there- 
fore makes  itself  a  new  religion.  At  the  graves  of  its 
saints,  it  seeks  compensation  for  the  dryness  of  the  of- 
ficial doctrine  and  worship."  ("  The  Hibbert  Lectures," 
p.  44.) 

The  God  whom  Jesus  reveals  gave  a  far  wider  area 
to  human  freedom ;  He  dignifies  man  and  sends  his 
soul  heavenward  in  aspiration,  while  the  Moslem  idea 
crushes  him  into  submission.  Christianity  emphasizes 
principles  ;  Mohammedanism  rules,  or  laws.  Christian- 
ity is  adapted   to  every  stage   of  human  civilization; 


THE  GROSS  AND  THE  GllESGENT  IN  ASIA       55 

Mohammedanism  to  the  middle  stage,  where  it  soon 
becomes  stereotyped  and  dead.  It  has  been  far  better 
than  the  systems  which  it  has  displaced,  but  it  soon 
reaches  its  limit,  and  the  law  of  progress  cannot  be 
truly  said  to  belong  to  Islam.  "  In  the  opinion  of 
every  orthodox  Mohammedan,  the  Koran  is  a  perfect 
revelation  of  the  will  of  God,  sufficient  and  final,  and 
Islam  is  a  separate,  distinct  and  absolutely  exclusive 
religion,"  therefore,  Islam  cannot  fully  avail  itself  of 
the  vital  forces  of  Christendom  without  abandoning  its 
fundamental  principles.  The  reform  of  Islam  is,  ac- 
cording to  its  own  theory,  not  within  the  range  of  pos- 
sibility. "  Only  by  retreating  from  its  Mohammedan- 
ism, from  its  Koranolatry,  from  its  violence,  sensuality, 
and  debasement  of  woman,  and  by  getting  into  the 
stream  of  eternal  life,  can  there  be  divine  knowledge  or 
salvation  for  any  of  its  peoples."  (Lawrence,  "  Modern 
Missions  in  the  East,"  p.  118.)  It  has  been  truly  said 
that  "  Islam  is  in  its  essence  stationary,  and  was  framed 
thus  to  remain.  Sterile  like  its  God,  lifeless  like  its 
First  Principle  and  Supreme  Original,  in  all  that  con- 
stitutes true  life,  for  life  is  love,  participation  and  prog- 
ress, and  of  these  the  Koranic  Deity  has  none,  it  justly 
repudiates  all  change,  all  advances,  all  development." 
(Clark,  "  Ten  Great  Eeligions,"  p.  480.) 

With  the  Mohammedan,  right  and  wrong  depend 
on  legal  enactments,  and  moral  acts  have  no  inherent 
quality.  Mohammedans  do  not  realize  that  sin  itself 
is  corruption  and  death,  and  that  salvation  is  some- 
thing more  than  an  escape  from  hell.  The  prophet  of 
Islam  was  a  military  commander,  Christ,  a  spiritual 
leader.  In  Islam  the  soul  is  to  be  saved  by  confession, 
prayer,  alms-giving,  pilgrimage;    that    is   by   routine, 


56  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

ceremonial,  submission  to  Islamic  rules.  In  Christian- 
ity the  soul  is  saved  through  faith,  through  love,  through 
life,  through  inward  holiness,  through  the  Cross,  which 
is  the  great  stumbling-block  to  Islam.  It  knows  noth- 
ing of  a  Divine  Redeemer,  suffering  in  our  stead,  rising 
from  the  grave  for  our  justification,  filling  us  full  with 
His  own  Divine  Life  and  binding  us  to  Him  by  His 
own  Divine  Love.  I  know  the  Christian  Church  has 
exhibited  in  different  ages  every  crime  and  enormity 
which  have  stained  the  history  of  Islam,  but  there  is 
no  justification  to?  these  crimes  in  the  character,  teach- 
ing, or  example  of  Jesus.  Back  in  the  dawn  of  Chris- 
tianity stands  the  spotless  and  radiant  figure  of  the 
Son  of  God.  The  fountain  of  the  Christian  religion  is 
the  pure  river  of  the  Water  of  Life,  and  Christian  his- 
tory will  be  purified  when  that  original  stream  is  per- 
mitted to  flow  on  unstained  by  the  corruptions  of  men. 
Not  so  with  Mohammedanism ;  the  more  closely  it 
comes  to  its  original  spirit  and  method,  the  more  hope- 
lessly its  spirit  and  virtue  are  mingled  with  error  and 
iniquity.  The  two  religions  are  fighting  to-day  for  the 
conquest  of  Asia,  and  we  may  well  lift  up  the  old  prayer, 
the  Collect  of  the  Anglican  Church — "  Take  from  them 
all  ignorance  and  hardness  of  heart." 

The  question  is  asked,  how  shall  we  best  commend 
Christianity  to  Moslems,  and  Principal  Grant  has  well 
answered  :  "  We  must  act  along  the  lines  of  least  resist- 
ance. These  are  suggested  to  us  by  Mohammed's  atti- 
tude to  the  Old  and  New  Testament  Scriptures.  He 
held  these  to  be  of  Divine  authority."  They  are  invari- 
ably mentioned  as  from  God.  This  is  the  door  by 
which  we  should  enter  in.  "  The  Koran  commands  the 
faithful  to  accept  the  testimony  of  these  Scriptures. 


THE  CROSS  AND  THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       57 

Once  they  are  brought  to  an  intelligent  study  of  them', 
who  can  doubt  the  result  ?  All  that  they  value  in  the 
Koran,  they  will  find  more  powerfully  stated  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments ;  and  they  will  find  more.  The 
Koran  may  thus  be  used  to  lead  earnest  seekers  to  the 
Lord  Jesus,  whom  Mohammed  himself,  we  may  well 
believe,  would  have  acknowledged  as  his  Lord  had  he 
only  known  Him  as  we  know  Him.  By  this  method  we 
may  hope  to  reach  individuals.  But  organized  Moham- 
medanism will  remain>  until  organized  Christendom 
reflects  the  spirit  of  Chlist,  in  peace  and  in  war,  in  poli- 
tical, social,  industrial,  economic,  and  domestic  life,  in 
its  art,  science,  press  and  literature,  in  its  civil  and  crimi- 
nal codes,  in  its  international  dealings,  and  in  a  Church 
so  filled  with  the  Spirit  that  it  shall  rise  above  dead 
issues,  and  do  the  work  of  to-day ;  rise  above  the  sec- 
tarianisms that  exhaust  its  strength,  and  go  forward  as 
one  body  to  make  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  the  king- 
dom of  God  and  His  Christ." 

The  future  redemption  of  Mohammedan  Asia  is  in 
the  power  of  those  gentle  and  yet  mighty  influences, 
springing  from  Christian  America,  which  have  made  the 
cities  and  villages  of  the  Lebanon  Mountains  centres 
of  Christian  education  and  evangelism.  As  such  com- 
munities multiply,  and  Islam  confronts  for  the  first  time 
a  Christian  civilization  which  shows  the  noblest  tri- 
umphs of  learning  and  charity,  of  prosperity  and  good 
morals,  who  doubts  that  the  long-closed  eyes  of  the 
Mohammedan  world  will  be  finally,  even  if  gradually, 
opened,  that  the  hard  heart  will  be  softened  by  Christian 
love?  As  a  Moslem  whose  wife  had  been  trained  by 
Christians  in  Syria  said  to  her  teacher :  "  You  have 
trained   my  wife  well ;   I   have   been   in   all   kinds  of 


58  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

iniquity.  When  I  married  her,  I  expected  to  beat  my 
wife,  and  then  divorce  her,  but  this  girl  has  won  my 
love  and  I  have  no  other  wife ; ':  so  under  the  influence 
of  Christian  civilization,  women  will  more  and  more 
emerge  from  the  wretched  seclusion  and  ignorance  and 
cruelty  which  have  often  been  their  lot  under  the  Cres- 
cent, into  the  freedom  and  light  and  hope,  which  have 
been  theirs  beneath  the  Cross  of  Mary's  Son.  Not  soon, 
but  ultimately,  the  Christian  era  shall  touch  Damascus 
and  Jerusalem,  and  Cairo  and  Teheran  and  Delhi  and 
Canton,  as  it  has  touched  Beirut  and  the  hill-towns  of 
Northern  Syria.  The  long  blight  and  agony  of  Moham- 
medan rule  will  yet  be  mitigated,  and  the  throne  of  the 
Arabian  prophet  will  be  beaten  to  fragments  by  the 
leaves  of  the  New  Testament,  mighty  through  God  to 
the  pulling  down  of  strongholds,  and  the  Redeemer,  who 
is  the  Son  of  God,  will  be  exalted  as  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords.  And,  even  the  solitudes  of  Arabia  shall 
yet  be  penetrated,  and  Jesus,  in  the  person  of  His  dis- 
ciples, shall  enter  the  ancient  shrine  of  Mecca,  and 
there,  at  last,  the  whole  truth  will  be  told.  "  This  is 
eternal  life,  to  know  Thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus 
Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent."  In  Persia,  which,  after 
the  conquests  of  Omar,  did  not  become  thoroughly 
Mohammedan  in  heart,  reformed  sects  have  risen  up 
like  that  which  was  called  from  its  founder  Babism,  a  sect 
which  has  gained  a  wide  following,  in  spite  of  persecu- 
tion, and  which  in  its  eclecticism  is  tolerant  and  totally 
different  from  the  spirit  of  Islam.  How  prevalent  it 
may  be  in  Persia  we  know  not,  because  it  is  a  generally 
received  tenet,  in  the  dominant  sect  of  orthodoxy,  that 
it  is  lawful  to  deny  one's  real  faith  in  time  of  danger. 
I  see  little  to  encourage  the  delusion  and  extra va- 


THE  GROSS  AND   THE  CRESCENT  IN  ASIA       59 

gance  sometimes  found  in  missionary  sermons,  though 
not  often  on  the  lips  of  missionaries  themselves,  to  the 
effect  that  by  doubling  our  energy,  devotion  and  gifts, 
we  shall  in  a  few  years  evangelize  the  world.  "We  ought, 
of  course,  to  double  our  energy  and  quadruple  our  gifts, 
but  vast  evolutions,  difficult  and  slow,  must  go  on  in  the 
Christian  and  non-Christian  realms  before  this  result 
is  possible.  Our  duty  is  plain.  It  becomes  us,  as  the 
disciples  of  the  Teacher  of  Nazareth,  to  reflect  more 
fully  before  men,  that  Light  which  can  never  cease  to 
be  the  Light  of  the  World,  to  send  everywhither  His 
Word,  and  more  than  all,  rising  above  the  letter  which 
killeth  to  the  Spirit  which  is  vital  and  immortal,  to  live 
as  He  did,  in  whom  we  have  hope,  and  who  still  marches 
at  the  head  of  humanity. 

"  Mohammed's  truth  lay  in  a  holy  book, 
Christ's  in  a  sacred  life. 

"  So  while  the  world  rolls  on  from  change  to  change 
And  realms  of  thought  expand, 
The  letter  stands  without  expanse  or  range, 
Stiff  as  a  dead  man's  hand. 

"While,  as  the  life-blood  fills  the  growing  form, 
The  spirit  Christ  has  shed, 
Flows  through  the  ripening  ages  fresh  and  warm 
More  felt  than  heard  or  read." 


CHAPTEK  III 

OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM 

We  landed  in  Bombay  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  Decem- 
ber, 1896,  and  I  realized,  on  seeing  the  mosques  of  this 
lordly  city,  that  in  reaching  India  I  had  not  left  the 
world  of  Islam.  Bombay,*  which  writes  upon  her 
escutcheon  "Urbs  Prima  in  India,"  was  also  first  in 
suffering,  and  we  were  sent  by  our  friends  out  of  its 
plague-infected  and  death-smitten  streets,  and  were  not 
permitted  to  return.  Two  days  and  two  nights  of  travel 
carried  us  to  the  ancient  and  holy  city  on  the  Ganges, 
the  capital  of  Hinduism,  the  scene  of  Buddha's  first 
preaching,  the  city  whose  hoary  idolatries  were  smitten 
by  the  Moslem  iconoclast,  Aurangseb.  Five  days  in 
Benares  did  not  enchant  me  with  popular  Hinduism ; 
but  even  here,  in  the  colleges,  in  the  homes  of  the  pun- 
dits, and  in  public  meetings  in  the  town-hall,  I  met  evi- 
dences of  enlightenment,  and  received  tokens  of  kind- 
ness, in  which  India  was  to  me  never  lacking.  Then 
followed  two  weeks  in  Calcutta,  the  political  and  intel- 
lectual chief  city  of  Great  Britain's  Indian  possessions, 
a  city  created  by  English  commerce  and  the  necessities 

*  "  Royal  and  dower-royal,  I,  the  Queen, 

Fronting  thy  richest  sea  with  richer  hands — 
A  thousand  mills  roar  through  me  where  I  glean 
All  races  from  all  lands." 
— Rudyard  Kipling,  "  The  Song  of  the  Cities." 

GO 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM         61 

of  that  long  struggle  of  arms  and  diplomacy  by  which, 
as  Hacaulajr  has  written:  "English  adventurers  secured 
an  empire*  greater  and  more  lasting  than  that  of  Alexan- 
der." The  ^twenty-two  addresses  given  in  Calcutta  were 
delivered  irAcolleges,  churches,  drawing-rooms,  and  vari- 
ous halls,  and  brought  me  into  contact  with  nearly  all 
the  different  forms  of  religious  and  intellectual  life  in 
the  city.     ^  I 

No  one  sees  the  land  of  the  Vedas  who  does  not  look 
upon  the  Himalayan  Mountains,  the  home  of  the  gods, 
the  inspiration  of  the  early  poets.  After  three  days  in 
Darjeeling,  where  the  golden  horn  of  Kinchin junga  and 
the  colossal  white  wall  of  his  mountain-brothers  lifted 
their  awful  heights  for  a  few  hours  before  our  vision,  we 
returned  to  Calcutta,  and  thence  proceeded  north,  visit- 
ing Lucknow,  Cawnpore,  Delhi,  and  Lahore.  In  these 
places  I  delivered  eleven  addresses,  and  in  Lahore  I 
first  came  in  contact  with  the  vigorous  Sikh  and  Moslem 
populations  of  Northern  India.  In  the  journey  south 
from  this  northernmost  point  my  work  carried  me  to 
Amritsar,  with  its  Golden  Temple ;  Agra,  with  the  tomb 
of  Akbar,  the  palace-fort,  and  the  pearly  splendors  of 
the  unmatched  Taj  Mahal ;  Jeypore,  pinkest  and  most 
picturesque  of  cities ;  Ajmere,  Indore,  and  Ahmednagar. 
During  this  part  of  my  Indian  work  fourteen  more  ad- 
dresses were  given.  Then  followed  eight  busy  and  ex- 
citing days  in  Poona,  and,  after  this,  we  left  Central  and 
"Western  India  for  the  more  fertile  and,  in  some  respects, 
more  attractive  regions  of  the  south.  During  my  three 
days  in  Bangalore,  two  days  in  Vellore,  two  weeks  in 
Madras ;  during  the  days  that  I  spent  in  Salem  and  Co- 
imbatore,  which  are  very  interesting  centres  of  Christian 
work ;  during  a  visit  made  to  Prince  Nouri,  until  lately 


62  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

the  Patriarch  of  the  Syrian  Christians  on  the  Malabar 
coast,  and  especially  after  a  week  spent  in  Madura  and 
Tinnevelly,  where  Christian  evangelism  and  education 
have  shown  some  of  their  largest  and  choicest  fruits,  I 
realized  how  much  greater  progress  the  Christian  cause 
had  made  in  the  south  than  in  the  north,  and  how  much 
more  wide-spread  and  intense  was  the  popular  interest 
in  the  affairs  of  religion.  Furthermore,  I  almost  felt 
that  my  work  as  a  Christian  delegate  to  the  Orient  ended 
on  the  fifth  of  March,  when,  under  the  presidency  of  a 
Brahman  judge,  I  delivered  my  last  lecture  in  India  in 
a  temporary  tabernacle  built  by  the  native  Christians  of 
Palamcottah. 

There  are  essential  features  in  the  Hindu  system  of 
thought  and  life,  like  the  doctrine  of  transmigration  or 
re-birth,  of  which  I  shall  not  speak  this  evening.  Fur- 
thermore, in  portraying  some  evils  of  Hinduism,  I  do 
not  mean  to  draw  a  severe  indictment  against  all  Hin- 
dus. Their  general  gentleness  of  spirit  and  fineness  of 
mind  command  love  and  admiration.  The  evils  on 
which  I  dwell  are  partly  corruptions  traceable  to  the 
Brahmanic  priesthood,  of  ideas  and  usages  which  were 
ethically  and  spiritually  better.  It  is  painful  to  me  to 
expose  the  dark  side  of  the  religion  of  a  people  and 
country  to  which  I  owe  so  much  gratitude. 

It  is  not  an  inspiring  and  elevating  spectacle,  the  sight 
at  close  range  of  Hinduism  and  what  it  has  effected  in 
a  land  where  nearly  one-half  the  people  are  imprisoned 
for  life,  hidden  from  sight  in  the  seclusion  and  social 
starvation  of  the  zenana ;  in  a  country  with  three  hun- 
dred millions  of  people  and  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  millions  of  gods,  most  of  whose  inhabitants  are 
half-naked,  and  one-fourth  of  whom  have  but  a  single 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        63 

meal  a  day,  even  when  famine  has  not  swept  away,  as 
during  the  last  twelve  months,  its  millions  of  victims ;  a 
country  where  idolatry  in  its  most  hideous  forms  spreads 
its  debasing  influence,  holding  in  childish  enslavement 
a  people  whom  a  pure  Christianity  is  yet  to  reach,  in- 
structing them  that  God,  who  is  spirit,  must  be  wor- 
shipped in  spirit  and  in  truth ;  a  country  where  lying  is 
an  immemorial  fine  art,  where  English  judges  are  in  de- 
spair of  knowing  what  testimony  in  court  is  true,  and 
where  American  observers,  predisposed,  like  Colonel 
Olcott,  to  look  favorably  on  all  things  Indian,  feel  the 
hopelessness  of  raising  the  people  out  of  bottomless 
depths  of  moral  rottenness ;  a  country  where  the  pop- 
ulation, separated  by  race,  language,  and  religion,  are 
spread  over  a  peninsula  so  vast  that  what  is  said  in 
Calcutta  may  appear  to  Lahore  like  an  utterance  from 
another  nation,  and  what  is  done  in  Bombay  is  of  little 
moment,  unless  it  be  in  the  matter  of  the  plague,  to  those 
who  live  in  Madras ;  a  country  into  which  Christian 
civilization  has  introduced  new  life,  extending  its  rail- 
roads and  telegraphs,  its  science  and  political  ideals,  its 
schools  and  colleges,  together  with  the  language  and 
literature  of  England,  so  widely  that  the  world  of 
Shakespeare  and  Cromwell  and  Darwin  is  perpetually 
meeting  and  modifying  the  mental  and  spiritual  world 
represented  by  the  laws  of  Menu  and  the  false  morality, 
false  history,  false  science,  and  false  philosophy  of  an- 
cient Hinduism ;  a  country  where  Christian  missions 
have  entered  with  their  divine  influence,  kindling  points 
of  celestial  light  amid  general  darkness  and  degradation, 
but  which,  on  account  of  its  national  pride,  and  the 
crimes  and  vices  associated  with  Christendom  in  its 
contacts,  often  cruel  and  debasing,  with  the  world  of 


64  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

India,  has  not  fallen  in  love  with  the  name  Christian ;  a 
country  made  up  of  divided  peoples,  cleft  horizontally 
by  caste  and  vertically  by  race  and  religion,  where  life 
is  disturbed  and  restless,  where  men  of  enlightenment 
scarcely  know  what  to  believe,  where  the  latest  material- 
ism and  skepticism  are  studied  and  adopted,  where  the 
eager,  patriotic  youth  in  the  colleges  take  delight  in  dis- 
covering the  weak  points  in  the  history,  manners,  and 
characters  of  their  English  masters  and  European  teach- 
ers, and  who,  in  the  recent  revival  of  Hinduism,  are 
groping  blindly  baokward  to  find,  if  possible,  in  their 
national  scriptures,  some  light  equalling  the  illumina- 
tion which  Christendom  has  received  from  Bethlehem 
and  Calvary. 

During  my  visit  in  Calcutta,  I  attended  the  opening 
session  of  the  Indian  National  Congress,  a  body  com- 
posed of  men,  more  or  less  representative,  from  all  parts 
of  the  continental  peninsula,  belonging  to  many  races, 
many  religions,  and  speaking  many  tongues.  Attired 
in  varied  costumes,  they  presented  a  brilliant  picture  in 
miniature  of  the  gorgeous  East.  The  President  for  that 
year  was  a  Mohammedan  from  Bombay,  and  before  him 
were  men  whose  native  languages  were  Bengali,  Hindi, 
Punjabi,  Nepali,  Marathi,  Tamil,  Kanarese,  and  but  for 
one  circumstance  these  men  could  not  have  spoken  to 
each  other  intelligibly.  That  important  circumstance 
is  the  fact  that  they  all  had  learned  to  speak  the  Eng- 
lish language.  This  is  one  of  the  few  bonds  of  unity 
holding  together  a  multitudinous  and  much-divided 
population.  The  National  Congress  represents,  accord- 
ing to  its  friends,  India's  aspiration  after  national  unity 
and  self-government.  It  represents  her  desire  for  a 
larger  share  in  the  administration  of  Indian  affairs,  and 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM         65 

it  represents  also  a  national  protest  against  some  of 
the  immoralities  of  popular  Hinduism. 

Immediately  following  the  National  Congress,  and 
really  an  outgrowth  of  it,  was  the  Indian  Social  Con- 
gress, composed  largely  of  the  same  members,  and 
among  the  evidences  that  this  movement  represents  so- 
cial reform  were  the  declarations  made  in  favor  of  the 
remarriage  of  widows,  of  the  prohibition  of  infant  mar- 
riage, of  the  agitation  in  behalf  of  what  is  called  the 
"  Sea-voyage  Movement,"  relaxing  the  caste-rules  in 
favor  of  travelled  men,  resolutions  advocating  efforts  in 
behalf  of  the  lower  castes,  and  also  protesting  against 
the  immoralities  and  abominations  connected  with  the 
temple  worship. 

In  the  present  Lecture  I  desire  to  speak  of  my  ob- 
servations of  popular  Hinduism,  and  if  what  I  shall  say 
shall  seem  to  you  quite  in  contrast  with  the  rose-colored 
views  that  have  been  presented  before  American  audi- 
ences, please  remember  that  it  is  "  popular  Hinduism  " 
of  which  I  speak,  and  do  not  forget  that  non- Christian 
social  reformers,  such  as  gathered  in  these  national  con- 
gresses, would  themselves  confirm  what  I  am  to  say. 

India  is  a  land  where  religion  can  be  observed  and 
where  it  cannot  be  escaped,  and  this  for  two  reasons : 
first,  because  religion  is  external ;  and  second,  because 
it  is  universal.  A  man's  religion  is  often  indicated  by 
the  streaks  of  paint  on  his  forehead.  If  they  are  hori- 
zontal, you  know  he  is  a  worshipper  of  Siva.  If  they 
are  vertical,  or  convergent  toward  the  bridge  of  the  nose, 
you  know  that  he  is  a  worshipper  of  Vishnu.  The  use 
of  paint  is  one  of  the  striking  features  of  Hinduism. 
Entering  the  bank  in  Bombay,  you  are  surprised  that 

the  accomplished,  polite,  English-speaking  accountant 
5 


66  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

has  a  red  mark  in  the  centre  of  his  forehead,  indicating 
that  he  has  done  service  that  morning  to  his  idol.  This 
is  called  doing  one's  "  pooja."  Little  boys  go  to  our 
Christian  schools  proud  of  marks  that  have  been  painted 
on  their  foreheads  by  the  devoted  Hindus  of  the  house- 
hold. Sometimes  these  are  frightful  disfigurements, 
and  I  remember  that  when  we  visited  the  Syrian  Chris- 
tians of  Trichur,  on  the  Malabar  coast,  it  was  delightful 
to  be  in  a  city  where  the  inhabitants  did  not  show  on 
their  foreheads  the  signs  of  idolatry  and  polytheism. 
The  spot,  or  the  stripes  of  paint,  are  extremely  signifi- 
cant. They  show  that  religion  is  a  matter  of  ceremony, 
of  custom,  form. 

One  may  observe  accurately  and  fully  the  working  of 
religion  in  India  because  it  is  universal.  Religion  en- 
ters into  all  life  ;  and  in  Benares,  for  example,  it  seems 
to  be  the  main  business  of  life.  Who  that  has  seen  it 
can  ever  forget  that  picture  which  so  many  have  at- 
tempted vainly  to  describe — the  morning  scene  on  the 
Ganges,  below  the  long  line  of  temples  and  tombs  that 
fringe  the  sacred  shore,  the  men,  women  and  children 
by  the  thousand,  and  sometimes  by  the  ten  thousand, 
who  have  come  down  for  their  ablutions,  stretching 
their  arms  and  saying  their  prayers  toward  the  sun, 
calling  upon  the  names  of  their  gods,  washing  their 
mouths  and  ears  and  arms  and  legs  in  the  great  river, 
whose  touch  is  so  sacred  and  potential  that  it  removes 
all  sin  !  In  the  bewildering  scene  one  becomes  confused 
and  asks  himself  if  he  is  visiting  Bedlam.  Is  this  the 
nineteenth  century  ?  Where  is  our  boasted  civilization  ? 
Are  all  men  maniacs  here?  Is  insanity  the  natural 
condition  of  some  portions  of  the  human  race  ?  There 
is  a  temple  to  the  goddess  of  small-pox  ;  here  are  idols 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        67 

of  almost  inconceivable  hideousness ;  there  are  men 
carrying  a  dead  body  to  lay  it  in  the  sacred  waters  be- 
fore it  is  burned ;  here  others  are  pounding  the  frag- 
ments of  a  human  form  that  has  been  only  partly  incin- 
erated ;  there  hundreds  of  poor  wretches  are  crowding 
down  toward  a  noisome  well  with  copper  coins  in  their 
fingers  and  wreaths  of  yellow  flowers,  eager  to  dip  their 
feet  and  hands  in  its  infected  depths  ;  here  are  hideous 
caricatures  of  humanity,  shrivelled,  clothed  in  rags  and 
vermin,  deformed,  mendicant,  lying  on  the  verge  of  the 
stream,  hoping  that  death  will  strike  them  there.  This 
is  only  one  of  the  many  pictures  which  might  be  drawn 
to  show  that  religion  has  become  a  series  of  ceremonies, 
not  without  a  meaning  to  the  initiated,  but  offering 
release  and  salvation — that  is  deliverance — in  some  re- 
mote future  from  the  bondage  of  re-births,  on  the  con- 
dition of  the  performance  of  certain  external  rites.  One 
walks  through  the  crowds  that  press  down  to  the 
Ganges,  crowds  that  have  assembled  from  all  parts  of 
India,  with  the  feeling  that  here  priestly  tyranny  has 
achieved  its  most  diabolical  triumphs ;  it  has  enslaved 
and  degraded  and  almost  bestialized  a  proud  and  in- 
telligent people. 

You  enter  a  temple  at  Benares — if  the  cows  will  per- 
mit you,  for  the  cows  are  here  deified — and  you  see 
loathsome  wretches  crawling  through  filth  and  touching 
various  parts  of  the  sacred  animal  with  their  lips. 
Here  idolatry  presents  an  aspect  which  robs  it  of  its 
last  vestige  of  respectability.  One  may  have  some 
aesthetic  sympathy  with  those  who  gather  on  the 
mountain-peak  to  watch  the  rising  sun  and  to  render 
homage  to  the  god  of  light  as  he  peers  over  the  Persian 
mountain  ;  one  may  have  some  sympathy  with  the  spirit 


68  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

of  the  Japanese  pilgrim  who  climbs  the  sacred  peak  of 
his  own  beautiful  land.  Many  lovers  of  beauty  discover 
something  lovable,  not  only  in  the  Greek  and  Roman 
mythologies,  but  also  in  the  services  rendered  to 
Phoebus  Apollo,  or  Pallas  Athene,  or  to  Olympian  Zeus ; 
but  in  Hindu  temples  almost  everything  is  dark  and 
ugly,  and  many  things  are  morally  and  physically  un- 
clean. 

Now  I  know,  of  course,  what  excuses  are  offered  for 
these  idolatries.  I  once  spent  a  whole  morning  in  Ma- 
dras in  listening  to  excuses  and  palliations.  My  lect- 
ures in  that  city,  following  immediately  those  of  the 
famous  apostle  of  Hinduism,  Swami  Yivekananda,  had 
aroused  a  good  deal  of  discussion,  and  naturally  there 
was  an  eager  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Hindu  Pundits 
and  the  sharp-tongued  Hindu  lawyers  to  get  even  with 
the  Christian  apologist,  who  was  invited  to  attend  a  re- 
ception to  be  given  at  eight  o'clock  and  to  speak  on 
America  and  the  Columbian  Fair.  Arriving  at  the  door, 
I  was  met  by  the  secretary  of  the  club,  who  asked  me  if 
I  would  have  any  objections  to  answering  some  ques- 
tions. I  said  "  No,"  but  perceived  at  once  that  I  had 
been  entrapped  into  what  was  to  be  a  sort  of  inquisi- 
tion. Perhaps  a  hundred  and  fifty  lawyers,  well  edu- 
cated and  glib-tongued  men,  were  present.  They  filled 
the  hall,  and  were  evidently  expecting  no  ordinary  sport. 
I  was  given  a  seat  behind  a  table  at  the  farther  end  of 
the  room,  and  by  my  side  was  one  of  my  reception  com- 
mittee, a  well-known  and  very  learned  ascetic  and  pun- 
dit with  whom  I  had  been  in  correspondence.  Several 
volumes  were  open  before  him,  and  he  had  written  out  a 
string  of  questions  which,  without  ceremony,  he  desired 
me  to  answer.     One  of  these  inquiries  related  to  some 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM         69 

unfavorable  remarks  which  I  had  published  in  regard  to 
the  effect  of  idolatry.  I  was  told  that  Lord  Macaulay 
had  said  that,  when  the  images  were  swept  out  of  the 
temples  in  the  early  Christian  centuries,  they  were  not 
also  removed  from  the  mind,  and  that  it  was  impossible, 
therefore,  to  rid  the  human  soul  of  image-worship.  I 
replied  that  I  knew  very  well  that  Macaulay  in  his  essay 
on  Milton  had  made  such  a  remark  ;  but  he  also  had 
said,  before  finishing  his  four  years  of  observation  in 
India,  that  Hindu  forms  of  idol  worship  were  hideous 
and  degrading,  and  he  made  the  prediction  that  Eng- 
lish education  in  thirty  years  would  banish  idolatry 
from  Bengal.  In  this  he  was  thoroughly  mistaken,  but 
it  did  not  seem  to  me  appropriate  to  quote  Lord  Ma- 
caulay as  a  defender  or  apologist  for  what  we  see  in 
popular  Hinduism.  One  lawyer  jumped  to  his  feet  and 
asked  what  there  was  in  popular  Hinduism  to  which  I 
objected.  I  replied  :  "  The  debasing  forms  of  idolatry 
which  one  sees,  for  example,  in  Benares.  It  seemed  to 
me  unworthy  of  an  intellectual  people,  like  the  Hindus, 
to  defend  such  a  degrading  worship  and  to  claim  that 
it  was  fitted  to  an  unenlightened  population.  Even 
granting,  which  I  do  not,  that  idolatry  is  fitted  to  na- 
tional infancy ;  granting,  which  I  do  not,  that  it  is  the 
kindergarten  of  true  worship,  why  should  the  Indian 
populations  have  been  kept  in  this  debasing  kinder- 
garten for  more  than  three  thousand  years  ?  Is  not  that 
period  of  childish  enslavement  altogether  too  long? 
Did  not  Christianity  in  about  three  centuries  sweep 
away,  to  a  very  large  extent,  the  unworthy  forms  of 
Greek  and  Roman  polytheism  ?  Do  you  think  it  elevat- 
ing to  a  human  being  to  crawl  through  the  filth  of  a 
temple,  as  I  have  seen  men  and  women  doing  in  Be- 


70  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

nares,  there  to  kiss  with  passionate  reverence  the  tail  of 
a  cow?" 

Upon  this,  one  of  the  lawyers  jumped  to  his  feet  and 
said  :  "I  think  it  is  better  to  kiss  the  tail  of  a  cow  than 
to  kill  the  cow  and  eat  her."  After  joining  in  the  langh 
which  followed  this  profound  and  witty  remark,  I  said  : 
"It  is  not  Christians  alone  who  kill  the  cow  and  eat 
her."  I  knew  very  well  that  many  of  the  men  before 
me  were  eaters  of  beef  on  the  sly.  I  knew  how  com- 
mon it  was  in  Calcutta  for  young  Brahmans  to  go  to 
the  Great  Eastern  Hotel  and  secretly  indulge  in  a  meat 
dinner.  And  I  knew,  also,  that  the  Hindus  are  accus- 
tomed to  kill  the  goat  before  the  hideous  idol  of  the 
goddess  Kali,  and  that  no  rational  argument  could  be 
offered  which  would  make  the  goat  less  sacred  than  the 
cow.  There  were  several  things  I  might  have  said  like 
this  :  It  would  be  better  in  India  if  men  worshipped  the 
cows  less  and  fed  them  more ;  for  such  poor,  suffering, 
half-starved  creatures  as  we  found  these  tiny  givers  of 
poor  milk  to  be,  are  not  to  be  met  with  elsewhere.  But 
I  had  something  to  say  more  effective.  About  me  were 
the  men  who  had  been  most  enthusiastic  in  giving  a 
princely  welcome  to  the  lately  returned  Swami.  Some 
of  them  were  on  his  Committee  of  Eeception  ;  some  of 
them  had  helped  to  drag  his  car  beneath  the  flower- 
covered  arches  which  lined  the  streets  of  Madras,  so  I 
quietly  said : 

"  Other  men  besides  Christians  eat  the  flesh  of  the 
cow.  At  the  close  of  the  first  session  of  the  Parliament 
of  Keligions,  I  invited  the  Swami  Yivekanancla  and  other 
Asiatics  to  go  with  me  to  the  restaurant  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  Art  Building,  and  I  said  to  the  Swami : 
'  What  shall  I  give  you  to  eat  ? '   and  he   answered : 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM         71 

'Give  me  beef.'  "  This  simple  remark  was  a  thunder- 
bolt out  of  a  clear  sky.  It  changed  the  aspect  of  the 
whole  meeting,  and  there  were  no  further  remarks  about 
meat-eating. 

I  said  to  these  men  later:  "Some  of  you  appear  to 
cherish  high  and  noble  ideas  of  God.  Now  Christianity 
does  not  keep  from  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant  the 
most  noble  conceptions.  It  teaches  that  God  is  spirit, 
and  should  be  worshipped  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  Do 
not  tell  me  that  I  cannot  worship  God  without  an  im- 
age, either  spiritual  or  material.  If  the  image  is  spir- 
itual, let  it  be  of  the  noblest  kind.  Let  it  reveal  God  to 
my  heart  and  imagination  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ ; 
but  as  for  me,  when  I  worship  God  most  truly,  I  have 
no  image  of  a  magnified  man  before  my  mind.  He  is 
within  my  soul,  the  Spirit  of  Love  pervading  my  whole 
being."  And  thus  I  went  on,  endeavoring  to  present 
the  Christian  ideal,  urging  upon  them  the  truth  so 
familiar  to  us  in  Western  Christendom,  that  the  lowliest 
and  most  ignorant  are  worthy  of  the  best  illumination, 
and  that  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  to  the  poor,  with 
all  its  lofty  conceptions  of  God,  has  wrought  the  chief 
marvels  of  Christian  history.  Instead  of  palliating 
idolatry,  with  all  its  terrible  associations  in  India,  the 
educated  Hindu  might  well  strive  to  repeat,  with  better 
accompaniments  and  without  any  surrender  of  faith  in 
the  great  God,  the  reformatory  and  ethical  work  which 
even  Buddhism  wrought  in  Asia  more  than  two  thou- 
sand years  ago. 

It  is  one  peculiarity  of  the  Hindu  mind  that  it  fails 
to  seize  the  main  point  of  a  discussion,  and  fastens  it- 
self on  some  minor  detail,  and  so  all  my  urgent  argu- 
ment was  met  by  this  question  :  "  Is  it  not  best  to  see 


72  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

some  good  in  the  religions  of  other  people  ?  "We  are 
told  in  the  Gospels  that,  when  Jesus  and  His  disciples 
were  walking  down  the  street,  they  saw  a  dead  dog  that 
had  been  lying  there  for  several  days,  and  the  disciples 
said :  '  How  horrible,'  but  Jesus  replied  :  '  How  beauti- 
ful are  his  teeth.'  "  To  this  I  answered  :  "  The  story  is 
an  interesting  one,  not  found  in  the  Gospels,  and  I  will 
not  seize  the  opportunity  which  you  rather  recklessly 
open,  and  call  Hinduism  a  dead  and  decaying  dog  in 
which  only  the  grinning  teeth  are  beautiful !  It  is  a 
strange  inquiry  to  put  to  me,  your  question,  if  it  is  not 
best  to  find  good  in  other  religions.  The  real  ques- 
tion is,  how  much  good  can  be  discovered  in  the  system 
advocated  ?  Does  it  contain  moral  soundness  at  its 
core  ?  Is  it  able  to  give  peace  to  the  human  soul  ? 
Would  it  not  be  better  for  educated  Hindus,  instead  of 
defending  idolatry  and  the  other  abominations  which 
are  degrading  a  mighty  people,  to  devote  their  lives  to 
lifting  the  pall  of  darkness  from  the  minds  of  millions 
who  are  capable  of  better  things  ?  " 

At  last  I  was  given  the  opportunity  of  speaking  at 
length,  uninterrupted  by  questions,  and  I  told  them 
about  America  and  the  Christian  foundations  of  our  na- 
tionality. I  told  them  that  we  acknowledge  the  dignity 
of  human  nature,  and  the  higher  possibilities  of  com- 
mon men.  I  told  them  that  we  put  responsibility  upon 
the  people,  and  we  give  them  the  best.  I  described 
the  growth  of  this  republic,  and  informed  them  how  all 
the  higher  things  of  civilization  had  rapidly  gained 
strength  because  a  large  number  of  men,  instructed  and 
inspired  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  felt  that  their  lives 
were  a  failure  unless  they  made  other  lives  better.  I 
told  them  of  the  rise  of  this  country ;  of  the  building  of 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        73 

the  "World's  Columbian  Exposition.  I  spoke  of  the 
great  gifts  of  rich  men,  their  endowments  of  institu- 
tions for  the  education  and  help  of  others.  I  told  them 
of  the  generous  purposes  which  we  had  in  view  when 
we  invited  all  the  nations  to  send  of  their  best  to  the 
Congresses  of  1893,  and  when  I  finished,  I  will  give 
them  the  credit  of  saying  that  they  rose  and  gave  three 
hearty  cheers  for  America  and  its  representative. 

Perhaps  this  story  of  a  personal  experience,  related 
at  length,  will  let  more  light  into  the  subject  of  Hindu- 
ism as  it  now  is,  than  a  narrative  or  descriptive  chapter 
written  from  a  scientific  stand-point.  It  may  seem  to 
you  incredible  that  educated  men  should  stand  up  to- 
day and  defend  idolatry.  Has  India  learned  nothing  ? 
Do  Hindus  continue  their  bloody  sacrifices  of  sheep 
and  goats  in  the  temples  ?  Do  they  still  practise  self- 
torture  ?  Are  they  still  blind  to  the  mission  and  mes- 
sage of  Jesus  Christ  who  "  proposes  to  cancel  all  the 
past  by  one  God-like  act  of  forgiveness,  releasing  men 
from  the  incubus  of  earning  divine  favor  by  good  works, 
when  only  love  is  required  ?  "  Yes,  these  things  are 
true.  India  is  a  land  of  contradictions.  The  most 
metaphysical  of  races  is  still  the  most  polytheistic  and 
the  most  idolatrous.  In  that  city  of  Madras,  where  the 
scene  which  I  have  described  occurred,  I  saw  in  close 
proximity  to  the  Christian  College  and  to  the  magnifi- 
cent British  law-courts  a  procession  walking  across  the 
electric  car-tracks,  carrying  in  the  midst  of  its  hundreds 
of  noisy  worshippers  the  image  of  an  ugly  idol,  before 
which  a  mirror  was  placed  that  the  stone  deity  might 
enjoy  his  own  beauty;  and  an  idol  which  these  worship- 
pers were  about  to  bathe  in  the  waters  of  the  Bay  of 
Bengal,  giving  him  thus  his  annual  ablution  ! 


74  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

In  Bangalore  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  learned, 
tolerant,  delightful  Brahman,  who  showed  me  the  Pub- 
lic Library  which  he  had  opened,  wherein  I  saw  some 
of  the  latest  books,  like  Mr.  Gladstone's  edition  of  the 
works  of  Bishop  Butler,  in  close  proximity  to  which  was 
his  own  private  temple,  which  I  could  not  enter,  where 
the  worship  of  images  was  carried  on,  unmindful  both 
of  the  decalogue  and  of  modern  enlightenment.  I  know 
it  is  said  that  there  is  no  idolatrous  polytheism  in  the 
popular  worship,  that  the  images  are  only  symbols  of 
spiritual  realities ;  but  this  contradicts  the  testimony 
of  those  who  question  the  common  people.  It  denies 
what  every  Hindu  reformer  knows  to  be  true.  Did  not 
Chunder  Sen  say  to  his  people  :  "  Idolatry  is  the  curse 
of  Hindostan,  the  deadly  canker  that  has  eaten  into  the 
vitals  of  native  society  ?  "  Did  he  not  exclaim,  in  the 
presence  of  those  who  were  partly  ashamed  of  the  pop- 
ular ignorance  :  "  It  will  be  an  insult  to  your  superior 
education  to  say  that  you  have  faith  in  idolatry,  that 
you  still  cherish  in  your  hearts  reverence  for  the  gods 
and  goddesses  of  the  Hindu  pantheon,  or  that  you  be- 
lieve in  the  thousand  and  one  absurdities  of  your  an- 
cestral creed.  You  must  hunt  it  out  of  your  country. 
For  the  sake  of  your  souls,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  souls 
of  the  millions  of  your  countrymen,  come  away  from  the 
hateful  idolatry  and  acknowledge  the  one  supreme  and 
true  God,  our  Maker,  Preserver  and  Moral  Governor." 

And  to  the  excuse  so  often  urged  that  idols  are  neces- 
sary for  the  common  people,  let  the  founder  of  the 
Brahmos,  Bam  Mohun  Boy,  rej^ly  :  "  Permit  me  in  this 
instance  to  ask  whether  every  Mussulman  in  Turkey, 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  every  Protestant  Chris- 
tian at  least  of  Europe,  and  many  followers  of  Cabeer 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        75 

and  Nanak,  do  not  worship  God  without  the  assistance 
of  consecrated  objects  ?  If  so,  how  can  we  suppose 
that  the  human  race  is  not  capable  of  adoring  the  Su- 
preme Being  without  the  puerile  practice  of  having  re- 
course to  visible  objects.  I  will  never  hesitate  to  assert 
that  His  adoration  is  not  only  possible  and  practicable, 
but  even  incumbent  upon  every  rational  creature." 

I  reached  the  conclusion,  that  idolatry  in  India  which 
is  so  entrenched  in  habit,  is,  in  one  sense,  another  illus- 
tration of  that  pervading  and  almost  unlimited  credulity 
which  characterizes  the  Hindu  mind.  He  says  of  his 
idol :  "  It  is  a  god,"  and  the  uglier  it  is  and  the  darker 
and  filthier  the  recess  in  which  it  is  worshipped,  the 
better  he  seems  pleased.  The  popular  mind  has  credit- 
ed absurdities  for  so  many  generations,  that  it  appears 
to  take  delight  in  what  is  extravagant,  grotesque  and 
meaningless.  The  literature  on  which  it  feeds  is  large- 
ly such  legends  as  those  contained  in  the  Puranas,  in 
which  a  geography  framed  out  of  the  imagination,  and 
incarnations  whose  grotesqueness  exceeds  the  dreams 
of  the  maniac,  and  chronologies  that  have  nothing  to 
do  with  science  or  history,  furnish  food  and  falsehood 
to  the  Indian  mind.  My  host  in  Poona,  the  Rev.  John 
Small,  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  informed  me 
that  one  of  his  scholars,  a  Hindu  boy,  was  finally  per- 
suaded that  the  system  of  geography  taught  in  European 
schools  was  true,  and  Mr.  Small  said  to  him :  "  What 
will  you  do  now  with  the  Hindu  geography,  with  its 
seven  insular  continents  surrounded  by  seven  great 
seas,  the  sea  of  salt  water,  of  sugar-cane  juice,  of  wine, 
of  clarified  butter,  of  curd,  of  milk,  and  of  fresh  water, 
with  its  mountains  tens  of  thousands  of  miles  in  height  ? 
Since  European  geography  is   true,  what  will  you  do 


76  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

with  this  Hindu  geography  ?  "  and  the  reply  was  not 
astonishing  :  "I  will  believe  them  both  !  " 

One  of  the  pernicious  and  monstrous  results  of  the 
Brahmanic  training  is  that  there  is  no  apparent  limit  to 
the  credulity  of  the  common  people.  It  was  generally 
believed  in  the  bazaars  of  Southern  India  that  the 
apostle  of  Hinduism  who  came  to  America  was  so  suc- 
cessful in  his  mission  that  most  of  our  church  doors 
have  been  closed  !  I  saw  a  statement  in  a  Madras  news- 
paper that  Swami  Yivekananda,  by  his  lectures  in  Lon- 
don, had  converted  to  Hinduism  several  bishops,  a 
large  number  of  English  clergymen,  and  nearly  all  the 
leading  business  men  of  that  city  !  These  things  were 
believed  by  people  who  had  swallowed  the  incredibili- 
ties of  the  Yishnu  Purana.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Pentecost, 
who  lived  in  1896  within  a  short  distance  from  the 
hall  where  the  Swami's  lectures  were  given,  told  me  in 
October  of  that  year,  that  he  had  never  even  heard  of 
the  Swami's  presence  in  London.  But  it  occurred  to 
me  that  some  rationalistic  and  imaginative  critic  might 
have  written  for  the  Hindu  newspaper,  a  statement 
which  would  prove  conclusively  that  Hinduism  had 
been  generally  accepted  in  Great  Britain.  It  is  well- 
known  that  the  sacred  name  often  used  in  prayer  is  Om. 
It  is  the  name  of  glory.  I  have  heard  it  repeated  by 
a  Hinduized  Buddhist  at  Darjeeling.  You  may  re- 
member that  it  occurs  in  the  Buddhist  prayer  quoted 
in  the  "  Light  of  Asia  : ''  "  Om  padme  mani."  Om,  that 
mystic  syllable,  is  the  secret  of  secrets.  Its  repetition 
gains  great  merit.  Om  is  the  bow,  the  soul  is  the  arrow, 
and  Brahma  is  the  aim.  Great  powers  are  ascribed  to 
this  famous  syllable  which  is  said  to  denote  the  triad 
of  gods,  Yishnu,  Siva  and   Brahma.     Now  the   critic 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM         77 

might  have  rendered  conclusive  testimony  that  Hindu 
philosophy  has  become  popularized  in  London  simply 
by  relating  how  he  went  to  a  music  hall  in  the  eastern 
part  of  the  city,  where  only  the  common  people  as- 
sembled, and  there  he  actually  heard  a  song  in  which 
the  refrain  was  "  'Om,  sweet  'Om !  "  This  would  be  en- 
tirely sufficient  evidence  to  millions  upon  millions  of 
unenlightened  Hindus. 

Among  the  chief  things  which  India  now  needs  is 
popular  education,  science,  and,  I  may  add,  wholesome 
skepticism.  The  people  have  been  trained  through 
long  centuries  to  believe  the  silly  and  incredible,  and 
one  illustration  of  this  is  the  system  of  caste,  which  ty- 
rannically prevails  throughout  India.  The  people  are 
taught  that  the  four  chief  castes  actually  came  from  the 
mouth,  the  arms,  the  thighs,  and  the  feet  of  Brahma, 
and  that  the  superiority  of  one  class  over  another  "  is 
as  much  a  law  of  nature  and  a  matter  of  divine  appoint- 
ment as  the  creation  of  separated  classes  of  animals." 
Thus,  caste  has  become  "  a  gigantic  conspiracy  against 
the  brotherhood  of  man."  These  people  have  been  edu- 
cated to  believe  that  the  race  is  divided  into  species 
as  distinct  from  one  another  as  the  lion  is  from  the  ox. 
I  have  no  doubt  that  Dr.  Bhandarkar,  one  of  the  most 
enlightened  of  Hindus,  who  presided  at  one  of  my  lect- 
ures at  Poona,  was  right  when  he  called  the  caste  sys- 
tem the  root  of  the  political  slavery  in  India.  I  look 
upon  it  with  its  sanctified  artificialities  so  horribly 
effective  in  blighting  genius  and  originality,  in  dwarfing 
manhood,  and  crushing  natural  rights  and  affections,  as 
one  of  the  masterpieces  of  diabolical  selfishness.  Ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  Menu,  the  Sudra,  the  lowest  of 
the  four  chief  castes,  was  created  merely  for  the  service 


78  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

of  the  Brahman,  who  may  compel  him  to  practise  ser- 
vitude while  he  robs  him  of  his  goods  with  perfect 
peace  of  mind,  for,  says  the  law :  "  Since  nothing  at  all 
belongs  to  the  Sudra  as  his  own,  his  property  may  be 
taken  away  by  his  master."  But  even  below  the  Sudras 
are  the  Pariahs  who  are  outcasts,  and  especially  in 
Southern  India  are  subject  to  constant  oppression. 
One  of  the  bravest  Brahmans  that  I  know,  Mr.  N.  K. 
Bamasamaya,  an  earnest  social  reformer  whom  I  met 
both  in  Calcutta  and  Madras,  speaking  of  the  Pariahs 
of  India,  informed  me  that  the  Hindus  believed  the 
Pariah's  lot  to  be  what  God  created  him  for.  He  him- 
self protests  against  these  cruelties  and  rejoices  in  what 
English  education  and  the  Christian  missionaries  have 
done  to  lift  up  these  submerged  millions,  and  he  thrilled 
many  hearts  when  at  the  National  Social  Congress  he 
exclaimed  :  "  In  spite  of  the  tall  talk  of  the  Brahmans 
and  other  Hindus,  it  is  the  missionaries  who  are  the 
friends  of  the  poor  and  oppressed  in  this  country." 

It  is  impossible  here  to  describe  the  intricacies  or  to 
set  forth  one  tithe  of  the  abominations  of  Hindu  caste, 
and  yet,  when  the  apostle  of  Hinduism  returned  from 
Great  Britain  and  flatteringly  told  the  people  that  caste 
in  England  was  something  far  worse  than  caste  in  India, 
the  wretched  falsehood  was  greedily  believed.  Look 
at  some  of  the  facts  in  the  case.  Caste  in  India  is  a 
divine  institution,  and  there  are  more  than  three  hun- 
dred special  hereditary  castes.  The  rope-dancers,  ele- 
phant-drivers, turban-winders,  ear-piercers,  sweepers, 
beggars,  must  always  adhere  to  the  ancestral  work  and 
position.  If  a  Hindu  is  touched  by  one  of  the  lower 
castes  while  eating,  he  throws  away  the  food  he  has 
cooked.     The  rich  and  hospitable  Maharajah  of  Cal- 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        79 

cutta,  who  threw  open  his  palace  to  give  us  a  princely 
reception  last  December,  is  himself  a  devout  Hindu  of 
high  standing,  but  his  family  lost  caste  several  genera- 
tions ago,  because  some  of  them  are  said  to  have  eaten 
or  smelled  of  food  which  had  been  cooked  by  Moham- 
medans. There  was  no  kindness  which  he  could  render 
to  us  and  his  other  guests  that  was  lacking,  except  that 
he  would  not  offer  us  food.  There  was  not  a  Brahman 
present  that  evening  who  would  have  eaten  anything 
with  his  wealthy  and  honorable  host.  Of  course,  the 
exclusiveness  is  not  only  with  the  higher  castes.  It  has 
been  said  that  no  one  in  India  is  ashamed  of  his  caste, 
and  the  lowest  Pariah  is  as  anxious  to  preserve  his  own 
caste,  as  the  highest  Brahman.  Invite  one  of  the  lowest 
orders  of  Sudras  to  eat  with  a  European  of  the  highest 
rank  and  he  averts  his  face  with  the  most  marked  dis- 
gust. At  a  station  in  Northern  India,  we  offered  some 
cooked  food  to  a  starving  little  girl,  but  she  turned  away 
from  us  as  if  we  had  been  lepers.  The  British  Govern- 
ment cannot  do  all  that  it  would  like  to  stop  the  bu- 
bonic plague  in  Bombay.  It  might  forcibly  carry  off 
to  the  hospital  those  who  are  infected,  but  the  sick 
Hindu  "  would  prefer  to  die  in  his  windowless,  blood- 
poisoning  hut,  rather  than  break  his  caste  by  going  to  a 
hospital  where  a  man  of  another  caste  had  previously 
taken  refuge." 

Now,  even  if  Hinduism  teaches  the  solidarity  of  man- 
kind through  their  common  connection  with  God,  their 
common  emanation  from  the  Supreme  Spirit,  it  practi- 
cally denies  brotherhood  and  makes  it  impossible. 
Chunder  Sen  describes  it  as  a  frightful  social  scourge 
opposing  all  progress,  wrecking  social  unity.  "It  is  the 
bulwark  of  Hindu  idolatry  and  the  safeguard  of  Brah- 


80  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

manical  priesthoods.  It  makes  social  distinctions  invio- 
lable divine  institutions  and,  in  the  name  of  the  holy 
God,  sows  perpetual  discord  and  enmity  among  His 
children."  One  becomes  sick  at  heart,  when  he  thinks 
what  caste  has  done  and  is  doing.  Even  politically,  it 
is  a  curse.  It  goes  on  multiplying  divisions.  Men  of 
the  same  caste,  if  from  different  localities,  will  not  eafc 
with  each  other. 

One  of  the  results  of  caste  is  that  it  unites  with  the 
baleful  influences  of  pantheism  and  polytheism  in  de- 
stroying the  sense  of  sin,  and  hence  of  personal  respon- 
sibility. The  one  chief  evil  which  a  Hindu  can  possibly 
commit,  next  to  killing  a  Brahman,  is  the  breaking  of 
caste.  Moral  conduct  thus  becomes  a  matter  of  rule,  of 
tradition,  of  custom.  There  was  a  caste  of  murderers 
in  India,  who  continued  their  bloody  work,  until  sup- 
pressed by  the  British  Government  and  confined  within 
the  prison  at  Jubelpore,  with  as  much  relish  and  indif- 
ference as  a  child  feels  in  killing  flies  and  mosquitoes. 
There  is  still  a  thief  caste  in  India.  I  saw  a  village 
near  Madura  occupied  by  these  people.  Every  mid- 
night some  officer  of  the  English  Government  calls  the 
roll  of  the  male  inhabitants  of  the  community.  Never- 
theless, after  they  have  reported  to  him,  and  he  has  dis- 
appeared, they  spread  themselves  for  miles  over  the 
surrounding  country,  carrying  on  their  occupation  until 
the  sun  rises,  when  they  are  found  quietly  sleeping  in 
their  own  mud  hovels.  At  the  house  of  our  host  in 
Palamcottah,  the  men  in  the  hall  outside  of  my  room 
who  pulled  the  punkah  over  my  bed  through  the  night, 
both  belonged  to  the  thief  caste.  I  asked  Mr.  Schreeni- 
vassa,  the  Christian  Brahman  who  entertained  us,  why 
he  employed  such  men,  and  he  said  that  they  were  under 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  IIINDUISM        81 

contract  with  him,  to  be  responsible  for  all  the  stealing 
that  was  done  in  his  house.  They  were  to  see  to  it  that 
no  robbery  occurred  here,  but  outside  they  probably 
pursued  their  profession  with  commendable  diligence  ! 

And  there  is  the  want  of  honesty,  common  truthfulness 
and  integrity  which  saddens  one  everywhere  in  India. 
On  our  arrival  in  Madura,  we  were  informed  at  the  station 
that  by  special  order  the  jewels  of  the  famous  temple 
would  be  opened  for  our  inspection  the  next  afternoon. 
These  precious  gems  are  enclosed  in  a  great  iron  box  to 
which  there  are  six  separate  locks  and  keys.  Each  key 
is  entrusted  to  a  different  warden  and  without  the  con- 
sent of  these  six  men,  who  live  in  different  places,  it  is 
impossible  to  get  at  the  treasures.  So  profound  is  the 
distrust  which  the  Hindus  have  of  each  other  that  some 
of  the  treasures  are  guarded  by  more  than  twenty  men 
in  this  way,  and  in  Madura  one  of  our  American  mis- 
sionaries was  asked  by  the  priests  of  the  temple  to  take 
charge  of  the  jewels.  He  refused,  and  they  said  to 
him  :  "  How  does  it  happen  that  when  we  have  so  many 
gods,  they  do  not  make  our  people  honest?  You  have 
only  one  and  He  succeeds  in  your  case.  What  we  need 
is  to  get  a  statue  of  your  God  Jesus,  and  put  Him  in 
our  temple  by  the  side  of  our  deities.  Perhaps  that  will 
succeed  in  making  us  honest ! "  The  lengths  to  which 
the  Hindu  mind  has  gone  in  its  faith  that  external  rites 
and  something  merely  mechanical  can  produce  sanctity, 
are  almost  incredible.  I  have  seen  men  staggering  in 
the  hot  sun,  bearing  on  their  shoulders  buckets  of  water, 
which  they  had  carried  three  hundred  miles  from  the 
Ganges,  in  order  to  pour  them  into  their  own  rivers, 
thus  to  make  them  sacred. 

Whatever  truth  the  Hindu  receives  into  his  mind,  he 
6 


82  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

is  in  peril  of  degrading  it,  of  Hinduizing  it.  He  would 
like  to  receive  Jesus  as  he  has  received  Buddha,  and 
enthrone  Him  as  a  Palestinian  avatar  of  Yishnu.  From 
time  to  time  mighty  protests  go  up  from  the  soil  of 
India  against  impurity  and  idolatry.  A  few  centuries 
ago  there  arose  in  the  Punjab  a  reformer  who  was  the 
founder  of  the  Sikhs,  and  gave  them  a  noble  literature, 
a  sacred  book  called  the  "  Granth,"  full  of  high  ethical 
sentiment  and  spiritual  teachings  that  protested  against 
idolatry.  "What  has  been  the  result  ?  They  have  taken 
this  volume,  an  immense  copy  of  it,  and  turned  it  into  an 
idol.  They  put  it  to  sleep  at  night  with  reverent  cere- 
mony. They  carry  it  in  the  morning  to  the  Golden 
Temple  of  Amritsar,  and,  there  I  saw  it  and  the  gor- 
geous priest  behind  it,  while  a  constant  procession  of 
worshippers  cast  their  flowers  and  shells  and  tiny  coins 
before  it.  A  second  copy  of  it  was  held  in  another  part 
of  the  temple,  and  relays  of  men  were  reading  it  through 
without  pause,  from  beginning  to  end,  hoping  thereby 
to  stop  the  terrible  plague  in  Bombay. 

If  the  Brahmanic  priesthood  has  succeeded  in  en- 
chaining the  popular  mind  and  the  common  life  of  India 
in  the  prison-house  of  caste,  of  idolatry,  and  of  ceremo- 
nialism, it  has  succeeded  equally  in  rendering  all  moral 
progress  impossible  through  the  degradation  of  woman- 
hood. When  I  was  in  Calcutta,  I  met  a  Christian  Ben- 
gali, a  minister  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  who 
remembers  having  in  his  childhood  lighted  the  funeral 
pyre  on  which  his  widowed  mother  was  burned  to  death, 
and  he  recalls  the  popular  praise  of  his  mother's  good 
behavior  on  this  interesting  occasion.  In  Benares  I  saw 
the  monuments  which  commemorate  the  places  where 
the  burning  of  widows  occurred  in  the  good  old  times 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM         83 

before  Lord  William  Bentinck  did  away  with  this  cru- 
elty. The  President  of  the  Bengali  Christian  Confer- 
ence, an  eminent  barrister,  a  SAveet-hearted  believer  in 
Jesus  Christ,  and  one  of  the  most  eloquent  speakers  in 
India,  Mr.  Kali  Charn  Banerjee  told  me  that  his  father 
was  the  husband  of  two  wives,  and  his  grandfather  the 
husband  of  sixty,  each  of  whom  lived  in  her  father's 
house.  The  frequency  of  his  visits  was  determined 
largely  by  the  amount  of  money  offered  him  at  these  dif- 
ferent places.  I  had  a  strange  feeling  as  I  spoke  in 
more  than  a  score  of  different  Indian  cities,  in  looking 
usually  at  an  audience  wholly  made  up  of  men.  Some- 
times a  few  Christian  women,  or  a  few  Brahmo  ladies 
sat  on  the  platform  or  near  it.  England  has  provided 
education  quite  amply  for  Hindu  gentlemen,  but  very 
meagrely  for  Hindu  ladies,  and  what  opportunity  would 
there  be  for  education  so  long  as  early  marriages  cut 
short  the  school-training  in  childhood  ?  What  hope  is 
there  for  the  physical  vigor  of  the  Hindu  people,  so 
long  as  child  marriages  continue,  and  what  hope  is  there 
of  removing  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  human  suffering 
and  degradation  so  long  as  the  re-marriage  of  the  child- 
widows  is  prohibited  ? 

There  is  no  man  in  India  more  respected,  probably, 
than  the  Hon.  Mr.  Justice  Banade,  of  Bombay,  whom  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  at  one  of  my  lectures,  and 
he  writes  that  "  against  the  child-widows  the  rule  pro- 
hibiting re-marriage  is  enforced  with  inexorable  rigor. 
For  them  there  is  no  relaxation  of  this  law,  no  pity,  no 
sympathy  ;  but  the  old  Hindu  widower,  who  is  shudder- 
ing on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  may  marry  again  and 
again,  as  often  as  he  likes.  For  him  there  is  no  restric- 
tion.    He  is  under  no  obligation  to   exercise  self-re- 


84:  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

straint."  I  think  there  is  no  contrast  between  Hinduism 
and  Christianity  that  is  greater  than  the  cruelty  shown 
to  widows  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  compassion  and 
spirit  of  helpfulness  enjoined  by  the  New  Testament  on 
the  other.  The  widow  is  supposed  to  have  been  re- 
sponsible for  the  death  of  her  husband,  and  her  subse- 
quent life,  now  that  she  is  not  burned,  is  often  one  of 
the  greatest  hardship,  in  which  many  forms  of  cruelty 
and  brutality  are  practiced  upon  her.  If  she  has  been 
betrothed  in  babyhood  or  infancy,  and  her  husband 
dies,  she  is  henceforth  a  widow  and  cannot  marry.  If, 
at  the  age  of  twelve,  she  is  married  to  a  man  of  seventy 
and  he  dies,  all  her  life  is  blighted.  At  Poona  I  saw 
the  home  for  high-caste  widows,  established  by  that 
noble  Christian  lady,  the  Pundita  Bamabai,  where  more 
than  one  hundred  of  these  widows  are  cared  for  and  edu- 
cated. In  one  room  I  saw  a  group  of  children  playing 
on  the  floor,  children  from  two  to  five  years  of  age,  and  I 
learned  that  all  these  were  widows.  Judge  Ranade  has 
well  said,  "  This  tyranny  of  the  strong  over  the  weak,  this 
huge  blot,  must  be  wiped  out.  The  curse  of  God  must 
rest  upon  a  society  which,  from  generation  to  generation, 
observes  a  custom  which  involves  a  high  injustice  and 
which  is  degrading  to  the  better  life  of  humanity." 

But,  worse  than  polygamy,  which  is  practised  in  In- 
dia usually  according  to  the  degree  of  a  man's  wealth ; 
worse  than  child-marriage,  and  the  prohibition  of  the 
marriage  of  child- widows,  is  the  fundamental  disesteem 
of  womanhood,  the  failure  to  recognize  in  her  a  mind 
and  soul,  having  all  the  rights  belonging  to  other  minds 
and  souls.  We  of  the  Occident  rejoice  in  the  freedom, 
equality,  peace,  happiness,  and  glory  of  our  homes,  the 
gift  to  us  of  Judaism  and  Christianity,  and  we  as  yet 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        85 

hardly  realize  that  in  Asia  hundreds  of  millions  of 
women  are  practically  in  servitude  to  the  selfishness  and 
passions  of  men.  We  may  mourn  over  the  child-widow 
becoming  the  degraded  drudge  of  a  household,  often 
kicked  and  starved,  and  robbed  of  her  jewels  and  shorn 
of  her  hair,  and  treated  for  all  her  miserable  existence 
as  a  thing.  We  may  also  mourn  the  lot  of  the  Hindu 
wife,  who  sees  little  or  nothing  of  God's  world  of  beauty 
except  her  own  garden ;  who  is  carried  in  a  close  pa- 
lanquin to  the  river,  and  who,  in  the  house,  is  not  al- 
lowed to  eat  with  her  husband,  but  must  wait  upon  him 
while  he  is  eating,  and  eat  what  he  has  left.  We  may 
mourn  the  prevalence  of  false  ideas  which  place  the 
girls  far  below  the  boys  in  the  privileges  of  the  house- 
hold, but  our  sorrow  becomes  flaming  indignation  when 
we  realize  that  religion  has  been  called  in  to  sanction 
things  infinitely  worse. 

I  once  said  to  Professor  Max  Muller  that  it  had  been 
denied  in  America  that  certain  immoralities  were  prac- 
tised in  the  temples  of  India,  but  he  shrugged  his  learn- 
ed shoulders  and  said,  "  One  has  only  to  read  the  re- 
ports of  the  British  Government."  The  outrageous 
indecency  of  some  of  the  idols  used  in  the  worship 
of  Siva,  and  of  sculptures  and  pictures  in  the  temples  of 
Southern  India,  is  not  to  be  mentioned  by  the  side  of 
the  fact  that  girls  are  frequently  consecrated  by  their 
mothers  to  become  the  servants  of  the  god  or  goddess 
of  some  shrine,  betrothed  to  the  temple,  as  the  expres- 
sion is.  I  have  a  photograph  of  a  girl  of  eight,  a  mem- 
ber of  a  Christian  school  in  India,  whom  I  saw  sur- 
rounded by  a  score  of  other  scholars,  who  had  been  set 
apart  by  her  own  mother  for  the  temple  service,  for 
this  life  of  shame,  as  an  act  of  religion.     This  horrible 


86  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

custom  of  dedicating  children  to  lives  of  infamy  is  by  no 
means  uncommon,  and  one  resolution,  unanimously 
passed  by  the  Social  Congress  in  Calcutta,  petitioned 
the  English  Government  to  assume  the  charge  of  the 
administration  of  Hindu  temples  on  account  of  this  and 
other  abominations.  It  seems  to  us  almost  incredible 
that  evil  should  be  deemed  good,  but  remember  that 
back  of  this  ethical  perversion  is  a  mythology  which 
glories  in  Krishna-worship ;  Krishna,  with  his  eight 
queens  and  sixteen  thousand  one  hundred  wives,  an 
incarnation  of  passion  rather  than  of  holiness,  and  you 
will  not  feel  that  Bishop  Caldwell  was  wrong  when  he 
said  that  "  the  stories  related  of  Krishna's  life  do  more 
than  anything  else  to  destroy  the  morals  and  corrupt 
the  imaginations  of  Hindu  youth." 

But  you  ask  me  if  these  great  splashes  of  darkness 
make  a  true  picture  of  Hinduism  as  it  is.  Is  there 
nothing  good  in  it  ?  Are  there  no  brighter  sides  to  the 
system  which  has  prevailed  so  long,  and  which,  except- 
ing Mohammedanism,  remains  the  greatest  barrier  to 
Christian  progress  ?  Is  there  no  true  spirituality  in 
India  corresponding  with  the  high  and  noble  precepts 
of  the  sacred  books  ?  There  certainly  is  this  other 
side,  of  which  I  will  speak  at  more  length  in  a  subse- 
quent lecture ;  and  I  may  say  right  here  that  many  of 
the  worst  things  of  popular  Hinduism  are  degradations 
and  perversions  of  what  was  originally  excellent  and 
useful.  But  I  have  desired  this  evening  to  stamp  a  few 
things  upon  your  minds,  to  remain  there,  I  hope,  for- 
ever, which  shall  make  you  feel  that,  taken  as  a  whole, 
looked  at  in  the  large,  Hinduism  has  been  a  deplorable 
failure.  I  wish  you  to  feel  how  thoroughly  nonsensical 
is  the  question  put  by  a  New  York  paper  in  its  eulogy 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        87 

of  Swami  Vivekananda  when  it  inquired,  "  Shall  we  send 
missionaries  to  a  land  which  produces  such  men  as  he  ?  " 
not  knowing  that  all  that  was  best  in  this  orator's  train- 
ing came  from  Christian  sources.  I  believe  it  is  neces- 
sary to  study  the  better  side  of  Hinduism.  I  believe 
that  Christianity  and  Hinduism  have  points  of  contact 
which  are  not  unimportant.  Rev.  Dr.  J.  P.  Jones,  of 
the  American  Board,  our  host  at  Pasumalai,  informed 
me  that  the  old  theory  that  Hinduism  was  altogether 
of  the  devil  and  must  be  denounced,  root  and  branch, 
as  a  thing  purely  Satanic,  has  now  given  way  to  a  more 
rational  belief,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  one  must  un- 
derstand the  truths  which  lie  back  of  gross  delusions 
and  errors  in  order  to  accomplish  the  best  results  in 
Christian  propagandise .  But  listen  for  a  moment  to 
what  a  non-Christian  scholar,  Mr.  Moncure  Conway,  re- 
ports after  visiting  the  land  of  the  Yedas,  and  tell  me, 
if  you  honestly  can,  that  India  does  not  need  the  Gos- 
pel of  Christ :  "  When  I  went  to  the  great  cities  of  In- 
dia .  .  .  the  contrast  between  the  real  and  the 
ideal  was  heart-breaking.  In  all  those  teeming  myriads 
of  worshippers,  not  one  man,  not  even  one  woman, 
seemed  to  entertain  the  shadow  of  a  conception  of  any- 
thing ideal  or  spiritual,  or  religious,  or  even  mytholog- 
ical, in  their  ancient  creed.  .  .  .  To  all  of  them  the 
false  god  which  they  had  worshipped — a  hulk  of  rough- 
ly carved  wood  or  stone — appeared  to  be  the  authentic 
presentment  of  some  terrible  demon  or  invisible  power, 
who  would  treat  them  cruelly  if  they  did  not  give  him 
some  melted  butter.  Of  religion  in  a  spiritual  sense 
there  is  none.  If  you  wish  for  religion,  you  will  not 
find  it  in  Brahmanism." 

Driving  one  morning  about  the  city  of  Vellore  with  a 


88  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Brahman  judge  of  high  character  and  kindly  spirit,  he 
said  to  me :  "  Popular  Hinduism  cannot  survive.  We 
must  reform  it.  We  must  go  back  to  the  high  and 
spiritual  teachings  of  the  Vedas,  and  we  must  get  rid  of 
caste,  though  this  may  take  a  hundred  years."  And 
there  are  many  others,  not  at  all  ready  to  accept  Chris- 
tianity, who  feel  with  him  that  something  must  be  done 
to  remove  what  they  deem  the  excrescences  of  a  noble 
system.  They  take  pleasure  in  quoting  the  fine  sayings 
of  the  Bhagavadgita,  and  reciting  the  noble  prayers 
which  have  been  on  the  lips  of  Brahmans  for  three  thou- 
sand years.  They  insist  that  what  we  condemn  and 
they  condemn  is  non-essential  to  the  system  ;  but  that 
when  all  these  abuses  are  removed,  the  noble  spiritu- 
ality of  the  Vedanta  philosophy  will  be  found  sufficient 
for  the  human  soul.  I  had  an  hour's  conversation  with 
a  gentlemanly  scholar,  a  wealthy  Zemindar  or  land- 
owner of  Bengal,  who  said  that,  "  true  Hinduism  is  not 
polytheistic  or  pantheistic."  In  this  he  revealed  that 
habit  of  the  Hindu  mind  of  missing  facts  and  of  imagin- 
ing that  what  ought  to  be  really  is.  He  said :  "  You 
have  set  forth  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Father.  Our 
Hindu  conception  of  God  is  nobler  still.  God  is 
father,  mother,  husband  and  friend."  I  asked  the  Pro- 
fessor of  Sanskrit  in  the  Queen's  College  at  Benares  : 
"  What  are  the  fundamental  principles  of  Hinduism?  " 
and  he  answered,  "  The  reality  of  the  soul ;  the  reality  of 
the  world ;  the  reality  and  personality  of  God  and  the 
necessity  of  the  revelation  of  divine  mercy  in  order  that 
men  may  come  into  union  with  God."  I  said  to  him  : 
"  This  is  Christian,"  but  he  replied  :  "  Why  call  it  Chris- 
tian ;  it  is  Vedic."  Furthermore,  it  must  be  said  that 
from  the  degrading  popular  Hinduism  which  I  have  de- 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        89 

scribed,  to  the  lofty  heights  of  the  Vedanta  philosophy, 
there  is  every  degree  of  truth  and  half  truth  entertained 
and  cherished,  and  Hinduism,  in  spite  of  its  varieties 
and  degradations,  is  held  in  something  of  unity  by  the 
caste  system  and  by  the  proud  national  spirit  which  re- 
sents undue  foreign  interference.  Christianity  had 
been  preached  a  long  while  in  India  before  the  people 
generally  thought  there  was  any  good  in  it.  At  a  recep- 
tion given  to  us  in  the  First  Church  in  Ahmednagar, 
Mr.  Modak,  a  scholarly  Christian  Brahman,  read  us  an 
address  in  which  he  said  that  "  sixty  years  ago  the  ma- 
jority of  Hindus  probably  considered  Christianity  as 
something  bad.  Probably  few  think  so  now.  Many 
think  it  is  as  good  as  any  other  religion."  Now,  it  has 
long  been  plain  to  me  that  in  our  dealings  with  a  ven- 
erable intellectual  system  so  mixed  up  of  good  and  evil 
as  Hinduism,  we  are  bound  to  acknowledge  the  good 
while  we  condemn  the  evil. 

I  cannot  sympathize  with  those  who  appear  to  feel 
that  God  had  confined  His  love,  or  at  least  His  activity, 
within  the  pale  of  Judaism  and  of  Christendom.  "  Every 
religion,"  it  has  been  said,  "  even  the  most  imperfect 
and  degraded,  has  something  which  ought  to  be  sacred 
to  us,  for  there  is  in  all  religions  a  secret  yearning  after 
the  true,  though  unknown,  God."  (Max  Miiller,  "  Chips 
from  a  German  Work-shop,"  I.,  p.  xxx.)  "  The  real 
history  of  man  is  the  history  of  religion,  the  wonderful 
ways  by  which  the  families  of  the  human  race  advance 
toward  a  truer  knowledge  and  a  deeper  love  of  God." 
"  This  is  the  foundation  that  underlies  all  profane  his- 
tory ;  it  is  the  light,  the  soul,  the  life  of  history,  and 
without  it  all  history  would  be  profane."  But  the  fam- 
ilies of  the  human  race  have  not  always  been  advancing 


90  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

toward  a  truer  knowledge  of  God,  and  India  is  a  con- 
spicuous example  of  retrogression  and  degradation. 
The  bright  glimpses  of  truth  that  flash  before  us  in  the 
Vedas,  become  darkened.  Hindu  civilization — that  im- 
mense and  various  life,  which  men  have  lived 

' '  Under  the  southward  snows  of  Hiinalay  ' ' 

presents  an  example  of  evolution  without  progress,  and 
with  its  deviousness,  its  glooms,  its  storms,  its  vastness 
and  its  languors,  may  be  likened  to  the  mystic  and  sin- 
uous stream  in  Coleridge's  "  Kubla  Khan  " — 

' '  Meandering  with  a  mazy  motion 
Through  wood  and  dale  the  sacred  river  ran, 
Then  reached  the  caverns  measureless  to  man, 
And  sank  in  tumult  to  a  lifeless  ocean." 

We  remember  how  stagnant  and  dead  and  full  of  cor- 
ruption was  the  sea  of  Hinduism  until  Christianity 
touched  it,  and  when  we  also  remember  that  true  or- 
thodox Hinduism  makes  no  profession  of  being  a  guide 
to  all  men,  but  stands  one  side,  contented  to  belong  to 
its  own  country  ;  when  we  remember  that,  however  cor- 
rupted Christianity  may  have  become  at  times,  it  is 
always  renewed  with  divine  life  and  reaches  onward  to 
ampler  conquests,  taking  the  whole  world  for  its  field, 
we  may  believe  that,  in  order  to  find  an  adequate  symbol 
of  Hinduism  we  should  go  to  the  Holy  Land  and,  in 
order  to  discover  an  adequate  symbol  of  Christianity, 
we  should  go  to  India  ;  and  doing  this,  we  say  of  Hin- 
duism that  it  is  like  the  Dead  Sea  which,  though  into 
it  the  streams  from  many  nations  have  poured  in  floods, 
is  made  but  little  sweeter  thereby,  but  stretches  out  its 
acrid  expanse,  above  which  hang  the  mists  of  restless 


OBSERVATIONS  OF  POPULAR  HINDUISM        91 

discontent,  while  along  its  shores  the  driftwood  of  many 
a  weary  and  bitter  century  has  been  tossed.  On  the 
other  hand  Christianity  is  like  the  sacred  Ganges  and 
its  great  tributaries,  coming  down  to  the  earth  from  the 
highest  heights,  feeding  the  thirsty  roots  of  grasses 
along  its  banks,  offering  a  tribute  to  the  majestic  palm 
tree,  and  the  blossoming  shrub  of  the  oleander,  giving 
a  cup  of  water  to  Pariah  and  Prince,  cooling  the  night 
air  for  the  infant's  slumbers,  and,  under  the  moonlight, 
showing  a  face  of  beauty  to  the  lone  watchers  from  the 
walls  of  Delhi  and  the  minarets  of  Benares  until,  made 
doubly  sacred  by  its  countless  benefactions,  it  rolls 
through  a  hundred  channels  into  the  Indian  Sea. 


CHAPTEE  IV 

PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM 

The  Indian  peninsula,  separated  from  the  rest  of  Asia 
by  the  loftiest  mountains  in  the  world,  is  divided  into 
three  great  tracts :  the  first,  that  of  the  Himalaya  heights ; 
the  second,  that  of  the  plains  of  the  great  rivers,  sloping 
down  from  the  northern  mountains ;  and  the  third,  that 
of  the  triangular  plateau  bounded  by  the  Yindhya 
Mountains  on  the  north  and  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Ghauts  on  the  sea-coast.  The  first  tract  is  the  key  to 
the  ethnology  and  history  of  India ;  from  it  and  beyond 
it  came  the  primitive  peoples.  The  second  tract  formed 
the  chief  theatre  of  the  ancient  race-movements  that 
shaped  the  history  of  India.  The  third  tract  has  a  dis- 
tinct life  of  its  own,  and  its  people  have  long  struggled 
with  the  Aryan  races  along  the  Ganges.  At  Darjeeling, 
in  the  northern  tract,  we  may  see  at  once  a  half-score  of 
peaks,  each  rising  more  than  twenty  thousand  feet,  and 
two  of  them  nearly  twice  the  height  of  Mont  Blanc. 
Descending  from  these  snowy  altitudes,  we  pass  through 
nearly  every  variety  of  production :  fir-trees  at  twelve 
thousand  feet ;  oaks  at  eight  thousand ;  peaches  at  six 
thousand ;  rice  at  three  thousand ;  figs,  dates,  mangoes, 
bamboos  at  one  thousand  ;  and  thus  we  descend  into  the 
Ganges  plain,  which  is  a  part  of  the  second  tract,  con- 
taining, with  the  other  plains,  a  population  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  millions  of  souls,  and  producing,  under  a 

92 


PHiLOSormo  Hinduism  93 

sun  of  burning  intensity,  provided  the  rains  do  not  fail, 
two,  and  sometimes  three,  harvests  every  year.  TVhere 
nature  is  so  wonderful,  magnificent,  and  terrible  as  in 
India,  we  are  not  surprised  that  the  outer  world  pro- 
duced a  mighty  impression  on  the  young  Aryan  mind. 
It  saw  in  the  life  of  Nature  the  perpetual  and  powerful 
activity  of  God.  "  It  is  for  this  reason,"  as  Mozoomdar 
has  said,  "  that  the  Yedic  sages  beheld  in  every  force 
and  phenomenon  of  nature  an  inworking  light  of  the 
Divinity.  There  was  God  in  the  sun,  God  in  the  Him- 
alayas, God  in  the  all-investing  sky,  God  in  the  expanse 
of  the  round  blue  sea ;  but  all  these  gods  merged  into 
one  supreme  Brahma,  the  meaning  of  which  word  is  God 
is  great  and  makes  everything  great." 

At  the  Inter-colonial  Exhibition  in  London  some  of 
you  have  seen  an  imposing  and  enchanting  display  of 
the  products  and  manufactures  of  Great  Britain's  Indian 
Empire.  You  were  dazzled  by  the  vision.  What  you 
beheld  was  not  the  work  of  a  wholly  barbarous  and  un- 
educated people.  You  wandered  through  a  wilderness 
of  economic,  architectural,  and  artistic  riches.  You  were 
able  to  study,  one  by  one,  the  eight  provinces — Bengal, 
Oudh,  the  Punjab,  the  Northwestern  and  the  Central 
Provinces,  Burma,  Assam,  Madras,  and  Bombay.  There 
you  could  see  an  Indian  jungle,  with  appropriate  trees, 
in  the  midst  of  which  were  the  cheetah,  or  hunting 
leopard,  the  bear,  the  boar,  the  buffalo,  the  alligator, 
peacocks  of  brilliant  plumage,  while  yonder  was  an  ele- 
phant, suddenly  come  upon  a  group  of  ferocious  tigers. 
Leaving  the  jungle,  you  wandered  through  courts  adorned 
with  the  ever-varying  architectural  forms  of  the  most 
famous  Indian  palaces  and  temples.  The  different  cities 
and  provinces  were  marked  off  by  screens  of  wood  and 


94  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

tile  and  ivory,  with  a  wealth  of  patterns  and  materials. 
Strange  names  were  meeting  you,  and  forms  which  only 
the  poetry  of  Hafiz  or  Keats  could  describe ;  shisham 
wood,  painted  black  and  covered  with  gold-leaf ;  screens 
from  Bombay,  with  bracketed  capitals  of  teak;  white- 
f oliaged  arches  with  intricate  trellis-patterns ;  screens 
that  reproduced  the  mosques  of  Ahmedebad ;  screens 
of  carved  birch  -  wood,  with  intertwined  dragons ; 
beautiful  columns  of  shisham  and  deodar  woods,  sur- 
mounted by  delicate  panels  perforated  with  geometric 
designs,  the  work  of  the  Sikh  carpenters  of  Northern 
India;  and  thus  on  in  infinite  variety  and  splendor. 
And  in  those  long  avenues,  behind  the  gorgeous  lattice- 
work, were  wares  and  treasures  which  might  have  taxed 
the  skill  and  power  of  the  servants  of  Aladdin's  lamp. 
Enamels  in  gold  and  silver,  elaborate  works  in  wood  and 
metal,  covered  with  the  forms  of  grotesque  Indian  my- 
thologies ;  antique  swords  studded  with  jewels  ;  gold- 
embroidered  shawls  and  bodices ;  carved  cradles,  cov- 
ered with  gold  silk,  for  the  swinging  of  Hindu  gods ; 
inlaid  work  of  buffalo  horn  and  mother-of-pearl  and 
ivory ;  muslin  stitched  with  gold  and  of  a  texture  so  fine 
that  a  lady's  dress  could  be  packed  into  a  pint  cup ; 
perforated  flower-baskets  of  porcelain ;  sandal-wood 
boxes  decorated  with  every  metal ;  head-dresses  of  dia- 
monds, emeralds,  and  pearls  set  in  silver ;  engraved  and 
lacquered  brass-ware ;  damascene  work,  gold- wrought 
cotton  tissues ;  coral  and  gold  filigree  necklaces ;  gorgeous 
carpets  ;  inlaid  ebonies  ;  embroidered  shoes ;  vases ; 
glass-ware ;  tapestries,  with  dyes  as  brilliant  as  poetry 
of  Persian  fancy ;  sights  bewitching,  interminable  :  such 
are  the  visions  that  led  you  on  and  on  through  the  gor- 
geous East,  through  splendors  and  bewilderments  such 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  95 

as  belong  to  no  other  empire — an  empire  which  attracted 
the  imagination  and  stirred  the  heart  of  Edmund  Burke, 
and  whose  intellectual  riches  have  excited  the  eager 
curiosity  of  Western  scholars  now  for  nearly  a  century. 
What  a  picture  this  industrial  display  presents  of  the 
strange,  subtle,  multiform,  splendid,  and  bewildering 
Oriental  mind  which  has  been  at  work  through  more 
than  two  thousand  years  in  elaborating,  modifying, 
adorning,  and  corrupting  the  rich  legacies  handed  down 
by  the  poets  of  the  Yedas ! 

Of  all  the  lands  with  which  Christendom  has  come 
into  contact,  India,  if  not  so  important  as  China,  is  the 
most  variously  interesting.  The  variety  and  greatness 
of  her  intellectual  and  spiritual  phenomena,  her  present 
sufferings,  and  her  racial  kinship  with  ourselves,  lend 
to  India  a  peculiar  fascination.  Professor  Max  Miiller 
has  made  much  of  what  he  deems  the  most  important 
discovery  of  the  nineteenth  century  with  respect  to  the 
ancient  history  of  mankind,  namely,  the  equivalence  of 
the  Sanskrit,  Greek,  Latin  and  old  Norse  terms  for 
God  as  Father.  Some  other  scholars  may  not  have 
been  able  fully  to  agree  with  all  which  he  has  written 
in  regard  to  this  question  of  etymology  and  of  religion, 
but  there  appears  to  be  no  good  reason  to  doubt  that 
the  common  ancestors  of  the  Aryan  nations  in  their 
early  Asiatic  home  had  bright  and  noble  glimpses  of 
divine  truth.  "  Thousands  of  years  have  passed  away 
since  the  Aryan  nations  separated  to  travel  to  the  North 
and  South,  the  West  and  East :  they  have  each  formed 
their  languages ;  they  have  each  founded  empires  and 
philosophies  ;  they  have  each  built  temples  and  razed 
them  to  the  ground  ;  they  have  all  grown  older  and,  it 
may  be,  wiser  and  better  ;  but  when  they  search  for  a 


96  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

name  for  that  which  is  most  exalted,  and  yet  most  dear 
to  every  one  of  us ;  when  they  wish  to  express  both 
awe  and  love,  the  infinite  and  the  finite,  they  can  but 
do  what  their  old  fathers  did,  when  gazing  up  to  the 
eternal  sky,  and  feeling  the  presence  of  a  Being  as  far 
as  far,  and  as  near  as  near  can  be ;  they  can  but  com- 
bine the  self-same  words  and  utter  once  more  the  pri- 
meval Aryan  prayer,  '  Heaven-Father,'  in  that  form 
which  will  endure  forever,  '  Our  Father  which  art  in 
Heaven.' " 

When  we  carry  the  Christian  Gospel  to  India,  we  go 
to  our  Aryan  brothers  and  tell  them  of  the  treasures 
which  we  have  found  since  our  fathers  separated  so 
long  ago,  and  we  ask  them  what  they  have  gained.  We 
soon  discover  how  much  they  have  lost,  and  realize 
that  in  India  we  have  a  conspicuous  illustration  of  the 
truth  of  Sir  Monier  Williams's  remark  that  "  non-Chris- 
tian Bibles  are  all  developments  in  the  wrong  direction. 
They  all  begin  with  some  flashes  of  true  light,  and  end 
in  darkness."  The  Scriptures,  which  the  Hindus  call 
tradition,  do  not  maintain  the  spiritual  loftiness  of  the 
Scriptures  which  they  call  revelation.  As  one  has  writ- 
ten :  "  The  liquid  poetry  has  become  a  frozen  prose ; 
the  old  flaming  fuel  of  genius  is  now  slag  and  ashes. 
We  see  Hindus  doing  exactty  what  Jewish  rabbis,  and, 
after  them,  Christian  school-men  and  dogma-makers 
did,  with  the  old  Hebrew  poems  and  prophecies.  Con- 
struing literally  the  prayers,  songs  and  hopes  of  an 
earlier  age,  they  rebuild  the  letter  of  the  text  into 
creeds  and  systems,  and  erect  an  amazing  edifice  of 
steel-framed  and  stone-cased  tradition,  to  challenge 
which  is  taught  to  be  heresy  and  impiety."  (Griffis, 
"  The  Keligions  of  Japan,"  p.  160.)     But  even  in  the 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  97 

Vedas  we  find  polytheism  with  an  indistinct  monothe- 
ism behind  it,  and  the  most  friendly  of  modern  scholars 
speaks  of  them  as  full  of  childish,  silly,  and  even,  to  our 
minds,  monstrous  conceptions.  But  explain  it  as  we 
may,  the  best  in  Hinduism  came  first,  whereas,  the 
Christian  believes  in  a  Bible  "  in  which  the  earlier  part 
is  related  to  the  later  as  the  flower-bud  to  the  expanded 
flower."  Even  a  few  days'  reading  will  make  the  scholar 
feel  most  keenly  that  he  is  continually  going  down  hill, 
as  he  passes  from  the  Yedic  literature  to  the  sacred 
law-books  bearing  the  name  of  Menu,  into  the  great 
legendary  poems  of  the  Bam  ay  ana  and  the  Mahabha- 
rata,  the  popular  Bibles  of  the  Hindus,  and  then  into 
the  Bhakti-S'Astras,  or  Sacred  Books  of  the  Faith,  the 
eighteen  Puranas  and  the  Tantras,  which  latter  give 
prominence  to  the  worship  of  the  female  energy  of  some 
god. 

I  am  not  to  offer  you  this  evening  a  study  of  Hindu 
systems  of  philosophy.  These  are  various,  complicated, 
subtle,  and  almost  interminable  and  may  best  be  stud- 
ied in  books.  I  am  rather  to  make  an  attempt  to  help 
you  understand  the  Hindu  mind,  as  I  came  into  contact 
with  it  during  three  months  of  constant  association  with 
scholarly  men  of  all  classes.  I  am  to  speak  of  some 
elements  of  that  system  of  religion,  if  it  may  be  called  a 
system,  which  many  patriotic  and  devoted  Hindus  be- 
lieve to  be  better  fitted  to  their  needs  than  Christianity. 
To  one  trained  in  Western  modes  of  thought  the  first 
peculiarity  of  the  Hindu  mind  which  he  notices  is  this : 
a  tendency  to  over-value  the  native  literature.  The  na- 
tional pride  estimates  too  highly  the  spiritual  and  intel- 
lectual worth  of  the  sacred  writings.     I  remember  that 

at  a  reception  given  at  Poona  by  the  Brahmos,  Mr. 

7 


98  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Bhandaker,  the  President,  said  that  in  shaping  their 
religious  thought,  they  must  give  predominance  to  the 
opinions  of  Hindu  thinkers ;  they  must  trace  the  stream 
of  Hindu  speculation  down  the  ages  from  point  to  point ; 
discover  how  one  thinker  corrected  the  mistakes  of 
another,  and  thereby  hope  to  arrive  at  perfect  truth. 
There  was  a  complete  ignoring  of  the  supreme  influence 
of  the  divine  revelation  which  we  regard  as  the  highest 
source  of  authority  in  religion.  I  have  seen  the  de- 
voted students  of  Hinduism  in  the  towers  that  overlook 
the  Ganges,  in  the  ancient  city  of  Benares,  men  who 
for  twenty  years  have  been  reading,  under  the  guidance 
of  saintly,  unclothed  pundits,  the  interminable  books 
which  they  regard  as  the  highest  and  purest  source  of 
spiritual  knowledge,  unmindful  of  the  degradation,  ig- 
norance and  miseries  of  the  huge  mass  of  idolators 
that  creep  and  suffer  and  die  about  them.  There  they 
spin  their  intellectual  webs ;  they  follow  the  devious 
track  of  former  thinkers ;  they  endeavor  to  slake  the 
unslakable  at  fountains  that  can  never  satisfy  the  soul. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  ghastly  pictures  of  misapplied  as- 
siduity and  ingenuity  that  the  world  presents  to-day. 
I  said  to  these  men :  "  Do  you  not  familiarize  yourselves 
with  the  Christian  Scriptures  ?  "  and  they  replied  :  "  Be- 
fore one  undertakes  anything  new,  he  asks,  what  pur- 
pose will  it  serve  ? "  I  replied :  "  It  is  worth  your 
while  to  know  the  Christian  Bible,  for  it  has  shaped  the 
mightiest  nations  of  the  world."  They  answered :  "  We 
have  not  yet  finished  our  own  scriptures.  We  find  in 
them  more  than  we  can  absorb  and  appropriate.  Why, 
therefore,  should  we  go  elsewhere  ?  '  And  there,  in 
their  conceited  loneliness  and  abstraction,  they  sat,  and 
there  they  will  continue  to  spin  the  webs  which  may 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  99 

catch  many  a  fly  and  darken  many  a  window.  There 
they  will  pursue  the  studies  which  may  sharpen  the 
mind  along  certain  narrow  lines,  but  can  never  make 
great  souls,  filled  with  the  passion  of  righteousness 
and  the  heroism  of  love. 

I  endeavored,  when  in  Calcutta,  to  get  a  statement 
from  a  dozen  of  the  acknowledged  leaders  in  Hinduism 
as  to  what  were  the  fundamental  principles  of  their  sys- 
tem of  religion,  independent  of  its  philosophy  and  inde- 
pendent of  its  social  relations.  The  replies  were  most 
unsatisfactory.  Some  said  that  Hinduism  was  too  vast 
for  them  to  give  any  account  of  it  in  a  brief  way. 
Others  referred  me  to  other  pundits.  The  only  man 
that  elaborately  replied,  answered  in  a  printed  pamphlet 
which  recounted  the  praises  that  European  scholars  had 
given  to  Hindu  philosophy,  but  furnished  nothing  defi- 
nite ;  and  he  was  the  same  man  who,  when  I  asked  him 
for  a  paper  on  Hinduism  for  the  Congresses  of  1893,  a 
paper  containing  not  more  than  four  thousand  words, 
sent  me  a  communication  containing  more  than  forty 
thousand  words,  another  illustration  of  the  profuseness 
and  endlessness  of  Hindu  literature.  As  in  the  Hindu 
temples,  the  effort  to  attain  dignity  and  sublimity  does 
not  express  itself  in  lifting  the  structure  high  above  the 
earth,  or  in  giving  it  symmetry  and  beauty,  but  in 
stretching  it  out  and  on,  adding  part  after  part  until  it 
becomes  an  interminable  series  of  galleries,  not  one  of 
which  is  lofty,  not  one  of  which  is  inspiring,  and  few  of 
which  are  clean ;  so  it  is  in  some  degree  with  Hindu 
speculation  and  Hindu  literature. 

On  evening  at  Bangalore,  I  was  given  a  reception  by 
fifty  very  courteous  Hindus,  who  allowed  me  an  hour  in 
which  to  ask  them  questions.     The  answers  were  given 


100  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

slowly  and  with  great  hesitancy.  There  was  consider- 
able want  of  harmony  in  the  replies,  but  the  effort  was 
to  make  Hinduism  as  beautiful  and  as  Christian  as  pos- 
sible. The  one  weak  point,  however,  was  the  doctrine 
of  sin  and  redemption.  These  excellent  men  could  not 
tell  of  any  experience  such  as  the  Christian  knows,  of 
having  been  delivered  by  a  gracious  act  of  Almighty 
God,  from  the  sense  of  guilt  and  from  the  fear  of  just 
retribution.  They  had  no  authority  on  which  to  base 
their  faith  in  God's  goodness,  and  they  were  evidently 
men  that  halted  in  some  way-station  on  the  path  of  life, 
realizing  that  the  journey  in  search  of  truth  must  begin 
again. 

If  I  were  asked  to  state  what  are  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  philosophic  Hinduism,  I  should  be  compelled 
to  leave  out  any  definite  opinions  in  regard  to  God's 
personality.  I  should  be  compelled  to  omit  most  of  the 
points  on  which  Christian  teaching  is  definite,  and  say 
that  Hinduism  believes  in  the  transmigration  of  the 
soul,  in  the  inviolability  of  caste,  and  in  man's  oneness 
with  God ;  but  this  leaves  the  definition  of  God  vague 
and  uncertain.  The  apostle  who  was  the  exponent  of 
Hindu  philosophy  in  America,  boasted  that  "  from  the 
high  spiritual  flights  of  Vedantic  philosophy,  of  which 
the  latest  discoveries  of  science  seem  like  the  echoes ; 
from  the  agnosticism  of  the  Buddhists  and  the  atheism  of 
the  Jains  and  the  low  ideas  of  idolatry  with  the  multi- 
farious mythology,  each  and  all  have  a  place  in  the 
Hindu's  religion."  ("  History  of  the  Parliament  of  Ee- 
ligions,"  p.  968.)  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  we  are 
entering  a  jungle ;  we  are  stepping  into  a  morass ;  we 
are  losing  ourselves  in  a  maze ;  we  are  in  peril  of  find- 
ing nothing  that  is  definite,  comprehensible  and  com- 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  101 

parable  with  other  faiths.  And,  in  truth,  he  who  enters 
the  world  of  Hindu  thought  enters  a  realm  of  endless 
contradictions  and  perpetual  bewilderment. 

Yet,  if  we  wTish  to  strike  at  once  at  the  centre  of 
Hindu  speculation,  we  find  it  in  this,  the  thought  of 
God  being  in  all  and  over  all,  the  life  of  life,  itself  at 
one  with  all  things.  What  is  true  and  permanent  in  this 
conception  of  God  had  expression  in  the  life  of  Israel, 
and  the  immanence  of  the  Deity  and  His  spirituality- 
are  taught  in  the  New  Testament  and  realized  in 
ample  measure  by  the  more  intelligent  thinking  of  to- 
day. But  nowhere  else  in  the  world  have  men  ever 
been  so  religious,  so  apt  to  refer  everything  in  life  and 
in  nature  to  a  divinity  or  to  divinities,  as  in  India. 
Discussing  the  place  of  Hinduism  in  the  history  of 
man,  Dr.  William  Miller,  of  Madras,  remarks,  that  "  the 
strange  plan  of  the  world  requires  a  separate  growth 
of  thoughts,  requires  their  predominance  over  other 
thoughts,  nay,  their  swallowing  up  of  all  other  thoughts 
for  the  time  and  within  a  narrow  sphere,  in  order  that 
such  thoughts  may  be  made  sufficiently  impressive  and, 
therefore,  available  for  the  benefit  of  all  mankind." 
("The  Place  of  Hinduism,"  p.  15.)  "Hinduism  has 
not  elaborated  the  thoughts  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  These  words  have  for 
some  years  been  widely  current  here  ;  but  it  is  from 
another  source  that  the  ideas  come  of  which  they  are 
the  proper  dress.  Yet  Hinduism  has  originated  the 
ideas  which  I  suppose  these  words  are  used  by  Hin- 
dus to  express.  It  teaches  the  omnipenetrativeness 
of  God;  it  teaches  the  unitedness,  the  solidarity  of 
men." 

But  we  cannot,  without  discrimination,  eulogize  either 


102  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

the  spirit  or  the  teaching  of  the  Hindu  in  regard  to  the 
Deity.  We  may  acknowledge  with  another  "  that  the 
Hindu's  recognition  of  the  immanence  of  God  in  every 
part  of  his  universe  will  quicken  the  present  movement 
of  western  thought  to  recognize  everywhere  a  present 
and  a  living  God ;  that  the  Hindu's  longing  for  unity 
will  help  the  Western  mind  not  only  to  admit  in  theory, 
hut,  more  to  appreciate  that,  since  there  is  hut  one  in- 
finite Father,  His  universe  must  be  a  unit ;  that  from 
the  beginning  forevermore  there  has  been  and  will  be 
one  plan  and  one  Purposer,  from  the  least  atom  to  the 
highest  intelligence.  From  the  testimony  of  Hindu 
thought  Christians  will  more  appreciate  the  superior- 
ity of  the  spiritual  and  invisible  over  the  material  and 
seen,  of  the  eternal  over  the  evanescent."  (Robert  A. 
Hume,  D.D.,  "  History  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions," 
p.  1275.)  We  may  acknowledge  that  the  man  who 
perceives  in  his  own  soul  the  supreme  soul  present  in 
all  creatures,  acquires  equanimity  toward  them  all. 
We  may  acknowledge  that  the  conviction  that  the  uni- 
verse is  one,  which  is  at  the  basis  of  Hinduism,  inspires 
in  many  a  desire  to  escape  from  the  multiplicity  of  the 
deities  to  the  sublime  monotheism  of  Mohammedanism, 
and  that  this  argues  well  for  the  final  triumph  of  Chris- 
tianity. But  the  general,  we  may  say  the  almost  univer- 
sal, conception  of  God  presented  by  Hinduism  is  "  a 
cold,  impersonal  pantheism."  The  distinction  between 
God  and  nature  and  God  and  the  human  soul  is  practi- 
cally denied.  One  of  the  ablest  of  modern  Christian 
Hindus,  the  late  Ram  Chandra  Bose,  has  said  :  "  Pan- 
theism, in  other  lands,  is  the  monopoly  of  a  few  gifted 
but  misguided  minds,  and  its  influence  is  scarcely  felt 
outside  of  very  narrow  and  narrowing  circles.   In  India, 


PIIILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  103 

however,  it  is  coextensive  with  social  or  national  life, 
being  held  both  by  the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  the  high  and  the  low.  The  miracle 
Western  scholars  scarcely  expect  to  see  realized,  or 
transformed  from  the  domain  of  possibility  to  the  do- 
main of  fact,  is  a  great  nation  of  pantheists ;  and  this 
miracle  is  presented  in  all  its  entireness  in  India !  Here 
pantheism  of  a  thoroughly  spiritual  type  is  preached 
and  advocated,  riot  only  in  temples  of  piety  and  halls 
of  learning,  but  in  places  of  public  resort,  in  streets 
and  thoroughfares  ;  not  only  in  the  seclusion  of  clois- 
ters and  cells,  but  amid  the  din  and  bustle  of  hives  of 
industry  and  marts  of  commerce."  ("  The  Sources  of 
Hindu  Philosophy,"  p.  8.)  God  as  a  person,  God  as 
Creator,  God  as  holy,  God  as  Providence,  possessed  of 
a  perfect  ethical  disposition,  working  for  righteousness 
and  love,  is  largely  eliminated  from  Hindu  philosophy 
and  religion.  Now  Pantheism  may  have  its  fascinations, 
even  for  the  Western  mind.  "The  conception  of  one 
universal  substance,"  it  has  been  said,  "  is  true  as  far  as 
it  goes,  but  it  is  not  the  whole  truth  ;  the  strand  of  dif- 
ference runs  through  creation."  And  individual  person- 
ality, which  has  been  eclipsed  by  Pantheism,  is  essential 
to  the  highest  character,  or  to  any  character  at  all,  and 
Christian  philosophy,  which  builds  on  personality  in  man 
and  God,  is  allied  with  the  soundest  sense.  As  Dr. 
George  A.  Gordon  has  written  :  "  Character  must  be  the 
character  of  someone.  .  .  .  The  classic  illustration 
of  '  Alice  in  Wonderland '  must  here  be  repeated.  A  cat 
without  a  grin  one  can  conceive,  but  a  grin  without  a  cat 
is  impossible.  A  personal  being  without  exalted  ethical 
habit  is  possible  enough,  but  an  exalted  ethical  habit 
without  a  personal  being  as  the  source  of  it  is  unthink- 


104  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

able."  Now,  races  in  which  the  sense  of  personality 
and  of  responsibility  has  been  quickened  demand  an 
ethical  god,  and  "the  ethical  character  of  God  irojxlies 
the  personal  reality  of  God." 

But,  while  a  pantheistic  tendency  is  the  most  pecul- 
iar and  powerful  trait  of  Hindu  thought,  we  must  not 
look  for  any  logical  consistency  in  the  Hindu  religion. 
It  is  split  into  six  rival  philosophies  and  divides  its 
worship  among  rival  gods.  It  revels  in  contradictions. 
It  glories  in  sheltering  the  most  opposite  theories.  It 
is  truly  said  that  "  with  a  belief  so  abstract  that  it  al- 
most escapes  the  grasp  of  the  most  speculative  intellect, 
is  joined  the  notion  that  sin  can  be  atoned  for  by  bath- 
ing in  the  Ganges  or  repeating  a  text  of  the  Yedas. 
"With  an  ideal  pantheism  resembling  that  of  Hegel,  is 
united  the  opinion  that  Brahma  and  Siva  can  be  driven 
from  the  throne  of  the  universe  by  anyone  who  will 
sacrifice  a  sufficient  number  of  wild  horses.  It  is  a 
principle  of  Hindu  religion  not  to  kill  a  worm,  not  even 
to  tread  on  a  blade  of  grass  for  fear  of  injuring  life,  but 
the  torments,  cruelties  and  bloodshed  inflicted  by  Ind- 
ian tyrants  would  shock  a  Nero  and  a  Borgia."  (James 
Freeman  Clarke,  "Ten  Great  Beligions,"  p.  82.)  It  is 
difficult  for  the  Western  mind  to  follow  with  interest, 
and  sometimes  it  is  not  easy  to  comprehend,  the  sub- 
tleties of  the  Brahman  intelligence;  but  the  modern 
Brahmanical  worship  is  incredibly  childish,  fantastic 
and  wearisome.  It  is  hardly  conceivable  that  men,  who 
are  supposed  to  be  at  home  in  the  Upanishads,  should 
enter  the  temple  of  the  god  Siva  after  bathing,  then 
bow  to  the  god,  anoint  the  image  with  clarified  butter 
or  boiled  oil,  pour  pure  water  over  it,  wipe  it  dry,  grind 
some  white  powder,  mix  it  with  water,  dip  the  ends  of 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  105 

their  forefingers  in  it,  draw  them  across  the  image,  sit 
down,  meditate,  place  rice  and  durwa  grass  on  the 
image,  place  a  flower  on  their  own  heads,  then  on  the 
top  of  the  image,  then  another  flower  on  the  image  and 
another  and  another,  accompanying  each  act  with  a 
recitation  of  sacred  spells,  place  white-powder,  flowers, 
bilwa  leaves,  incense,  meat-offerings,  rice,  plantains  and 
a  lamp  before  the  image ;  repeat  the  name  of  Siva  with 
praises,  then  prostrate  themselves  before  the  image,  and 
so  on  and  on.  This  is,  however,  one  of  the  simpler  of 
the  prescribed  forms  of  worship. 

But  we  must  not  be  surprised  at  any  meeting  of  ex- 
tremes in  Hinduism,  for  Hinduism  is  itself  a  receptacle 
and  reservoir  of  all  possible  contradictions,  and  its  tol- 
erance is  so  wide  that  it  is  not  a  religious  organization, 
and  scarcely  a  religion.  I  had  in  Calcutta  a  conversa- 
tion with  Babu  Guru  Sen,  who  has  written  :  "  It  is 
perfectly  optional  with  the  Hindu  to  choose  from  any  of 
the  different  creeds  with  which  the  Shastras  abound,  or 
any  other  creed,  not  a  trace  of  which  can  be  found  in 
the  Shastras  or  any  other  book.  He  may  choose  to 
have  faith  in  a  creed  if  he  wants  a  creed,  or  to  do  with- 
out one.  He  may  be  an  atheist,  a  deist,  a  monotheist, 
or  a  polytheist,  a  believer  in  the  Vedas  or  Shastras,  or 
be  a  skeptic  as  regards  their  authority,  and  his  position 
as  a  Hindu  cannot  be  questioned  by  anyone  on  account 
of  his  beliefs  or  unbeliefs,  so  long  as  he  conforms  to 
social  rules."  It  was  claimed  at  the  Parliament  of  Re- 
ligions, and  the  claim  was  often  made  in  the  journals  of 
India  during  my  visit  to  that  country,  that  Hinduism  is 
tolerant.  A  more  accurate  statement  is  that  of  Dr. 
Murdock,  the  secretary  of  the  Christian  Literature  So- 
ciety of  India,  who  says  :     "  Hinduism  is  at  once  tho 


106  THE  CHRISTIAN   CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

most  tolerant  and  intolerant.  It  will  allow  a  man  to  be 
an  atheist,  theist,  polytheist,  pantheist ;  he  may  wor- 
ship anything  in  the  heaven  above  or  in  the  earth  be- 
neath, or  nothing.  He  may  charge  God  with  the  great- 
est crimes  or  he  may  deny  His  existence.  He  may  be 
gnilty  of  lying,  theft,  adultery,  murder  ;  but  so  long  as 
he  observes  the  rules  of  his  caste,  he  may  live  in  his 
own  home  unmolested,  and  have  free  admission  to 
Hindu  temples.  But  let  him  visit  England  to  study, 
let  him  marry  a  widow,  dine  with  a  person  of  another 
caste,  or  even  take  a  glass  of  water  from  his  hand,  and, 
according  to  Hinduism,  he  is  excommunicated.  Hindu- 
ism, however,  reserves  its  greatest  intolerance  for  the 
man  who  becomes  a  Christian.  Hindus  are  then  up  in 
arms  and  make  the  most  intolerant  speeches,  and  do 
the  most  intolerant  deeds.  They  are  ready  to  call  down 
the  curses  of  all  the  gods  upon  those  who  have  been  in- 
strumental in  the  conversion.  They  invoke  the  aid  of 
the  law,  and  employ  all  its  machinery  to  crush  him  ; 
they  are  even  willing,  in  some  cases,  to  do  to  death  the 
man  who  has  dared  to  think  for  himself  and  then  to  act 
up  to  his  convictions.  These  things  show  that,  under 
the  seeming  toleration  of  the  Hindu,  lurks  a  spirit  of 
most  bitter  intolerance." 

But,  before  condemning  too  severely  this  violent 
spirit,  we  ought  to  understand  its  origin.  The  Brahman 
is  the  proudest  of  mortals,  and  belongs  to  a  caste  which 
has,  to  a  great  extent,  moulded  the  life  of  India.  In 
the  laws  of  Menu,  we  read  the  precepts  :  "  Never  shall 
a  king  slay  a  Brahman,  though  convicted  of  all  possible 
crimes  ; '  and  again,  "  Whatever  exists  in  the  universe 
is  all  the  property  of  the  Brahman."  (Mitchell's  "Hin- 
duism," p.  200.)     The   Brahmans  were  a  company  of 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  107 

men  whose  chief  occupation,  theoretically,  was  thought, 
and  who  underwent  almost  every  privation  and  austerity 
that  they  might  meditate  most  effectually.  They  were 
the  clergy,  they  were  the  educated  class,  and,  it  has  been 
said  that,  "  they  must  guard  the  purity  of  their  blood  as 
jealously  as  the  Jews  after  Ezra's  day  guarded  them- 
selves by  means  of  the  law  of  Moses  from  the  rilthiness 
of  the  surrounding  heathen,  or  as  the  Dutch  Boers  in 
South  Africa  in  our  own  time  have  kept  aloof  from  the 
Hottentots,  Bushmen,  and  Kaffirs,  regarding  them  as 
Canaanites,  and  themselves  as  God's  people."  (Grant, 
"  Keligions  of  the  World,"  p.  6.)  "  Thus  the  idea  that 
some  classes  are  inherently  noble  and  others  inherently 
polluted  and  abominable  "  has  taken  large  possession  of 
the  Hindu  mind,  although  there  is  the  least  possible 
trace  of  caste  in  the  Vedas.  The  Brahman  believed  that 
to  him  was  given  the  capacity  for  beholding  the  unseen 
being.  Brahma,  whose  name  was  given  to  his  votaries, 
was  the  supreme  intelligence — "  thought  rather  than 
will,  one  from  whose  meditation  all  worlds  flowed  out, 
not  one  by  whose  will  they  had  been  created,"  and  the 
Brahman  was  the  earthly  representative  of  the  infinite 
mind.  It  is  common  to  suppose  that  the  Brahmans  in- 
vented caste  for  selfish  reasons,  that  they  might  hedge 
themselves  about  from  the  vulgar  herd  and  live  lives  of 
vainglory.  But,  it  has  been  well  said,  "That  is  not  the 
way  in  which  anything  that  has  life  comes  into  being,  nor 
is  it  the  rock  on  which  anything  permanent  is  ever  built. 
That  which  lasts  must  have  its  roots  in  the  nature  of 
things  and  not  in  the  selfishness  of  an  individual  or  a 
class.  The  stern  theory  of  duties  which  the  Brahmans 
worked  out,  the  faithfulness  with  which  they  observed 
them,  and  the  reverence  which  they  received  for  centu- 


108  TEE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

ries  from  all  classes,  are  the  best  proofs  that  they  were 
actuated,  not  by  love  of  ease,  but  by  a  high  sense  of  ob- 
ligation." (Grant,  "Beligions  of  the  World,"  p.  98.) 
With  his  racial  pride,  with  his  profound  belief  that  he 
is  a  twice-born  man,  with  the  influence  of  thousands  of 
years  of  superiority  coursing  through  his  soul,  the 
Brahman  has  not  taken  kindly  to  the  religion  of  the 
war-like  and  intemperate  nations,  who  offer  him  a  sys- 
tem of  faith  much  younger  than  his  own,  whose  first 
command  is  repentance,  and  whose  ethics  are  not  the 
nrinutise  of  ritual  observance,  but  the  broadest  frater- 
nity and  the  most  unselfish  love. 

I  have  said  that  the  system  of  caste  is  the  frame- 
work of  Hindu  society,  and  it  might  almost  be  said,  the 
substance  of  Hindu  religion.  During  all  the  centuries 
since  the  system  was  developed,  the  four  chief  castes 
have  held  the  same  relative  positions.  No  immorality 
has  caused  the  descent  of  the  higher  to  the  lower,  and 
no  virtue  has  secured  the  ascent  of  the  lower  to  the 
higher.  When  I  was  on  the  West  Coast,  I  learned  that 
an  exception  had  been  made  of  the  Maharajah  of  Trav- 
ancore.  This  princely  Sudra  is  made  a  Brahman  and 
regenerated  by  the  following  method  :  his  Highness  is 
weighed  against  gold,  taken  out  of  his  own  treasury, 
and  this  gold  is  worked  over  into  the  form  of  a  hollow 
cow,  and  into  this  cow  the  Maharajah  is  laid.  When 
he  is  taken  out  of  the  sacred  animal  he  is  born  again. 
The  cow  is  then  turned  into  coins,  which  are  distributed 
among  the  Brahmans.  This  ceremony  of  regeneration 
is  postponed  sometimes  until  the  prince,  through  judi- 
cious feeding,  has  been  able  to  grow  stout,  in  order  that 
the  covetous  priests  may  take  as  large  a  weight  of  gold 
as  possible  out  of  the  Maharajah's  treasury. 


PHILOSOPHIC!  HINDUISM  109 

The  religion  of  the  Yedas  knows  no  definite  doctrine 
of  caste,  no  worship  of  idols,  no  widow-burning,  no 
authorized  infanticide,  no  abominable  tyranny  imposed 
upon  woman,  no  pronounced  pantheism  even,  and  no 
transmigration  of  souls.  The  chief  abuses  of  Hindu- 
ism belong  to  its  later  ages.  In  the  Yedas  we  enter  a 
brighter  world  than  we  find  to-day  in  India.  And,  as 
the  phenomena  of  light  arrested  most  powerfully  the 
imagination  of  the  early  poets,  we  find  their  Devas,  their 
bright  ones,  far  more  fascinating  than  the  gods  who  suc- 
ceeded them.  "  Those  simple  hymns  which,  up  to  the 
present  day  are  regarded  by  the  Brahmans,"  as  Max 
Miiller  has  said,  "  with  the  same  feeling  with  which  a  Mo- 
hammedan regards  the  Koran,  a  Jew  the  Old  Testament, 
a  Christian  his  Gospel,"  those  hymns  of  the  true  ancestors 
of  our  race,  in  which  we  study  the  first  beginnings  of  our 
language,  take  us  into  a  purer  air  than  we  can  elsewhere 
breathe  in  the  temple  of  Hinduism.  And  I  would  again 
mention  as  perhaps  the  most  important  contrast  be- 
tween the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures  on  the  one 
hand  and  the  Hindu  on  the  other,  that  in  the  former  we 
have  a  continuous,  or  substantially  continuous,  growth 
in  doctrine,  a  development  from  the  lower  to  the  higher, 
from  the  less  perfect  to  the  perfect ;  while  in  the  latter 
there  is  woful  and  sometimes  swift  degeneracy,  a  de- 
cline from  the  loftiness  and  purity  of  earlier  thought 
and  aspiration. 

I  would  not  deny,  I  gratefully  confess,  that  Hinduism 
has  been  a  reservoir  which  in  all  ages  has  contained  a 
variety  of  religious  ideas,  which  are  of  supreme  value. 
It  has  given  us  profound  teachings  concerning  the  sin- 
fulness and  spiritual  weakness  of  man,  the  necessity  of 
an  Incarnation,  the  value  of  prayer  and  self-sacrifice, 


110  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

the  immortality  of  tlie  soul,  the  supremacy  of  a  divine 
intelligence.  It  has  offered  comforting  words  concern- 
ing the  divine  goodness  and  sympathy.  We  find  in  it 
promises  of  a  better  age,  "  which,  no  doubt,  cheered 
many  a  heart  crushed  with  the  load,  or  torn  with  the 
contradictions  of  life."  But  how  feeble,  imperfect, 
unauthoritative  and  meagre  seems  all  this  teaching  com- 
pared with  what  has  come  to  us  through  the  Biblical 
history !  With  the  Hindu,  all  is  speculation,  dream ; 
but  with  the  Christian,  truth  has  been  disclosed  in  con- 
nection with  historic  facts,  and  a  divine  and  historic 
Person.  "  Now  the  Yedas  and  the  Upanishads  contain 
no  history ;  and  the  same  thing  holds  of  the  philosophi- 
cal books.  They  express  thoughts,  not  facts.  In  the 
Epic  poems  and  Puranas,  what  is  put  forward  as  history 
stands  self-convicted  as  the  lawless  product  of  imagina- 
tion. But  how  different  is  the  Bible !  Dean  Stanley 
has  justly  said  that  '  Christianity  alone  of  all  religions 
claims  to  be  founded  not  on  fancy  or  feeling,  but  on 
fact  and  truth.'  (Mitchell,  "  Hinduism  Past  and  Pres- 
ent," p.  259.)  We  who  are  spiritually  the  children  of 
the  Hebrew  and  Christian  history,  sometimes  feebly 
realize  our  indebtedness  to  it.  Facts  are  God's  ideas 
crystallized.  Nations  who  believe  in  a  divine  history 
have  themselves  the  faculty  of  making  history.  India 
has  been  without  any  orderly  and  progressive  develop- 
ment, such  as  could  be  dignified  by  the  name  of  history. 
Her  people  have  been  moulded  by  speculation,  and  have 
been  practically  disabled  from  entering  the  world  of 
realities  and  of  definite  and  progressive  achievement,  so 
that  I  am  disposed  to  respect  this  criticism  made  upon 
the  Hindu  thinkers  :  "  They  are  spoken  of  by  those 
who  best  know  them  as  intellectually  one  of  the  most 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  111 

gifted  peoples  on  the  globe.  I  cannot  help  the  feeling 
that  this  is  a  very  great  exaggeration.  The  Hindus 
have  no  science,  and  do  not  even  know  what  the  word 
means.  They  have  achieved  no  fame  in  working  out 
a  theory  of  government,  and  less  in  the  institution  of 
one.  Their  gift  lies  in  the  direction  of  metaphysics, 
and  this  subject  they  have  conceived  not  as  Plato  or 
Aristotle  did,  not  as  Kant  and  his  great  successors  have 
done.  Their  strength  has  never  been  in  orderly  and 
valid  thinking,  even  when  turned  upon  the  great  cen- 
tres of  being.  But  they  have  a  marvellous  faculty  and 
fertility  of  spiritual  imagination,  and  their  power  of 
reflecting  profound  metaphysical  truth  through  the 
luminous  haze  of  intellectual  vision  is  indeed  amazing." 
(Dr.  George  A.  Gordon.) 

Conversing  in  Madras  with  a  Hindu  professor  of  phi- 
losophy in  one  of  the  government  colleges  of  India,  I 
learned  from  him  that  Hindu  philosophy  is  not  included 
in  the  prescribed  course  of  philosophic  study.  There 
is  in  India  to-day  considerable  enthusiasm  for  the  so- 
called  Vedantic  philosophy.  It  has  indeed,  become 
the  spiritual  fad  of  the  people,  most  of  whom  know 
nothing  whatever  about  it.  Of  the  six  Darsanas  or  ex- 
hibitions of  methodized  philosophy,  the  Yedanta  takes 
its  name  from  the  Vedas,  but  agrees  much  more  with  the 
Upanishads,  a  system  said  to  have  had  its  origin  with 
the  sage  Vyasa,  and  the  most  distinguished  champion  of 
which  was  the  sage  Sankara,  who  flourished  during  the 
eighth  century  of  our  era.  This  philosophy  affirms  the 
oneness  of  the  soul  with  God ;  identifies  the  whole  uni- 
verse with  Deity,  which  is  the  sole  reality,  so  that  all 
outside  of  Him  is  appearance  only,  but  is  not.  It 
teaches  that  by  a  state  of  moral  absorption  or  moral  in- 


112  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

activity  the  soul  is  emancipated  from  delusions,  and 
knowing  God,  becomes  God.  "  Meditation  without  dis- 
tinction of  subject  and  object  is  the  highest  form  of 
thought."  "  Success  is  achieved  by  impassibility,  apa- 
thy and  abstraction  by  means  of  the  soul,  which  does 
not  only  withdraw  itself  from  the  outer  world,  but  sup- 
presses the  clear  consciousness  which  always  separates 
the  subject  and  object,  and  sinks  into  a  state  of  deep 
sleep  till  finally  the  absorption  of  the  individual  self  into 
the  general  self  is  attained  and  consciousness  is  quite 
extinguished."  (De  la  Saussaye,  "  Science  of  Religion," 
p.  540.) 

What  has  weakened  the  Hindu  spirit  and  exhausted 
it  has  been  the  age-long  separation  of  the  intellect  and 
will,  and  the  false  identification  of  man  with  God,  which 
has  lessened  the  sense  of  personal  sinfulness,  and  re- 
duced the  human  soul  toward  the  level  of  a  drop  of 
water,  tossed  forever  on  the  bosom  of  an  infinite  ocean. 
The  Hindu  has  not  been  without  a  keen  sense  of  ill  de- 
sert. This  is  God's  witness  of  Himself  in  the  human 
soul,  but  over  against  this  has  been  a  polytheism  which 
filled  the  popular  mind  with  pictures  of  deities  to  whom 
sin  was  a  pastime.  And  one  born  and  brought  up  in 
the  midst  of  Hinduism  has  dared  to  write  :  "  The  vices 
current  in  the  country  are,  in  nine  instances  out  of  ten, 
facsimiles  of  the  vices  of  the  gods  and  goddesses  adored 
by  our  countrymen.  The  worshippers  of  Krishna  be- 
come as  a  rule  licentious ;  of  Mahacleva,  smokers  of  in- 
toxicating drugs ;  of  Kali,  bloodthirsty  thugs.  From 
this  law  of  assimilation,  the  philosopher  is  not  excluded. 
The  object  of  his  worship,  or  rather  contemplation,  is  a 
Being  without  power,  without  quality  and  relation,  a 
magnificent  nothing ;  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  should, 


PniLOSOPHIO  HINDUISM  113 

by  a  painful  process  of  mortification,  endeavor  to  re- 
duce himself  to  nothing,  by  extinguishing  his  conscious- 
ness, thought,  feeling  and  muscular  energy." 

When  we  ask  what  have  been  the  effects  of  the  higher 
Hinduism  over  the  millions  who  throng  and  suffer  and 
die  on  the  burning  plains  of  India,  we  are  compelled  to 
deplore  its  feebleness  for  good.  We  find  that  multi- 
tudes are  cherishing  a  religion  which  is  practically 
demon  worship ;  a  religion  without  philosophy  and 
without  hope ;  a  religion  allied  to  barbarous  sacrifices 
and  savage  superstitions.  Macaulay  may  not  have  been 
able  to  appreciate  the  better  aspects  of  the  Hindu  faith, 
but  its  practical  results  he  has  set  forth  with  substan- 
tial accuracy.  It  is  not  rhetorical  exaggeration  to  af- 
firm that  "  emblems  of  vice  are  objects  of  public  wor- 
ship, and  acts  of  vice  are  acts  of  public  worship  ;  "  that 
"  crimes  against  life  and  property  are  not  only  permitted 
but  enjoined,"  and,  "  but  for  English  interference,  human 
victims  would  still  be  offered  to  the  Ganges,  and  the 
widow  would  still  be  laid  on  the  pile  with  the  corpse  of 
her  husband  and  burned  alive  by  her  own  children." 
The  varieties  and  degeneracies  of  the  human  spirit  in 
its  handling  and  use  of  divine  truth  appear  to  be  inten- 
sified in  Hinduism.  We  have  seen  a  thousand  corrup- 
tions of  Christianity,  perversions,  lapses,  the  stereotyping 
of  poetry  into  dogma,  the  emphasizing  of  non-essentials, 
the  taking  of  a  half-truth  and  exalting  it  to  a  supreme 
dominion  over  life.  But  these  things,  these  tendencies 
of  the  human  spirit,  have  run  wild  in  Hinduism.  Men 
among  all  races,  in  all  times,  have  felt  the  need  of  an 
incarnation  of  God,  a  living  evidence  of  a  divine  sym- 
pathy with  man.     But  think  of  an  incarnation  which  has 

its  highest  manifestations  in  the  fantastic,  monstrous, 
8 


114  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

and  degrading  performances  of  Krishna  !  The  doctrine 
of  the  Avatar  is  one  of  the  important  points  in  later 
Hinduism,  but  it  is  almost  a  profanity  to  compare  it 
with  the  Incarnation  of  Christ.  An  "  Avatar  in  which 
the  divinity  successively  takes  the  form  of  a  fish,  a  tor- 
toise, a  boar,  a  man-lion,  a  dwarf,  a  destroyer,  a  licen- 
tious cow-herd,  and  an  arch-deceiver "  is  a  horrible 
contrast  with  the  coming  of  Him  who  was  the  Word 
made  flesh  and  tabernacling  among  men,  and  show- 
ing forth  the  glory  of  the  Only-begotten,  full  of  grace 
and  truth. 

It  may  not  be  possible  for  Christianity  to  come  into 
any  harmony  or  even  mutual  and  self-respecting  under- 
standing with  modern  Hinduism ;  but  it  is  possible  to 
find  points  of  contact  and  agreement  by  going  back  to 
the  earlier  recorded  life  of  the  human  spirit,  as  por- 
trayed in  the  Vedas.  There  are  some  teachings  funda- 
mental to  the  Christian  and  Vedic  systems,  and  one  of 
these  relates  to  the  Incarnation.  The  Incarnation  is  the 
basis  of  the  Christian  Gospel,  and  incarnations  came  to 
predominate  in  the  later  Hinduism,  showing  that  the 
Aryan  mind  has  not  been  satisfied  to  think  of  God 
as  inaccessible  and  unknown,  and  that  its  temple  of 
thought  and  worship  needed  to  be  adorned  with  pict- 
ures of  endless  emanations  from  the  divine.  And  how- 
ever grotesque  and  repulsive  the  incarnations  of  Hin- 
duism, some  of  the  widest  and  most  accessible  ap- 
proaches to  the  Hindu  mind  of  the  future  will  be 
along  the  line  of  this  doctrine.  "Christ  is- none  the 
less,  yea,  the  more  welcome  to  this  land,"  says  a  vener- 
able missionary,  "  because  the  most  popular  god  of  the 
Hindu  pantheon  to-day  is  also  a  leading  incarnation  of 
Vishnu." 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  115 

Nor  is  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  atonement  absent 
from  Hinduism.  The  idea  is  there  in  the  Rig  Yeda, 
and  Professor  Banerjea  holds  that  it  would  not  be  easy 
to  account  for  the  genesis  of  the  idea  except  on  the  as- 
sumption of  some  primitive  tradition  of  the  "  Lamb 
slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  Whether  this 
be  true  or  not,  and  I  am  not  much  disposed  to  adhere 
to  the  primitive  tradition  theory,  preferring  to  think  of 
the  human  soul  as  the  mother  of  tradition,  and  of  God 
as  active  by  His  Spirit  in  persuading  men  of  truth  in  all 
ages,  still  there  is  this  glimpse  of  the  Cross  which  was 
given  to  Hindu  poets  long  before  Jerusalem  slew  her 
King.  Others  have  claimed  that  in  the  matter  of  spir- 
ituality, there  is  a  point  of  affinity  between  Hinduism 
and  the  Christian  Gospel.  The  Hindu  is  a  mystic,  and 
the  Yoga  system  of  philosophy  and  life  has  certainly  a 
powerful  hold  upon  many  of  the  nobler  minds. 

The  reader  of  the  Sacred  Books  and  the  sympathetic 
student  of  the  better  type  of  Hindu  believers  to-day 
will  realize  that  there  is  an  ideal  Hinduism,  differing 
widely  from  much  that  has  been  actualized,  that  aspires 
toward  the  eternal  God,  like  the  Vedic  poet  who  sang, 
"  Yearning  for  him,  the  far-seeing,  my  thoughts  move 
onward  as  kine  move  to  their  pastures."  We  are 
stirred  by  the  daily  prayer  of  every  Brahman,  repeated 
by  millions  of  worshippers  :  "  Let  us  meditate  on  the 
adorable  light  of  the  Divine  Creator ;  may  He  rouse  our 
minds."  There  is  no  lack  of  nobility,  and  of  at  least  ex- 
ternal resemblance  to  some  Christian  teachings,  in  the 
common  Brahmanical  creed  which  asserts  the  following 
propositions  :  "  The  eternity  of  the  soul ;  the  eternity 
of  the  substance  of  which  the  universe  has  been  evolved ; 
the  necessity  of  a  soul  being  united  to  a  body  before 


116  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

there  can  be  consciousness,  will,  or  action ;  the  worth- 
lessness  of  the  body  ;  and  a  place  of  reward  or  punish- 
ment where  the  working-out  of  the  consequences  of  acts 
takes  place,  which,  however,  is  not  final."  Hinduism 
was  strong  enough  to  expel  Buddhism,  which  had  re- 
nounced the  divinities  and  was  essentially  agnostic  with 
regard  to  the  Supreme  Spirit.  It  has  a  conception  of 
God  which  is  very  penetratiug  and  deep,  although  it 
lacks  the  simple,  sublime,  personal  monotheism  em- 
braced by  the  sixty  millions  of  Hindu  Moslems,  and 
the  full-orbed  conception  of  God  as  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit  which  is  the  disclosure  of  Christianity. 
Let  us  not  fail  to  do  justice  to  the  brighter  sides  of  this 
wondrous  faith,  and  to  those  slumbering  possibilities  of 
spiritual  power  which  will  be  evoked  from  the  Hindu 
spirit  when  he  comes  to  feel  with  Mozoomdar  that 
Christianity  "  fulfilled  not  only  the  Hebrew  prophecy 
of  God's  Kingdom,  but  fulfilled  also  the  promise  of  the 
Hindu  books,"  and  "  that  men  would  be  better  Hindus — 
that  is,  purer  and  more  spiritual — if  they  had  greater 
reverence  and  appreciation  of  the  message  of  the  Son  of 
man."     ("  The  Spirit  of  God,"  p.  305.) 

But  the  best  that  we  find  in  Hinduism  is  imperfect, 
poor,  and  feeble  compared  with  the  pure  doctrine  of 
Christ.  When  we  contrast  the  Christian  teaching  of 
God — holy,  personal,  loving,  working  ever  for  righteous- 
ness, manifest  in  providence  and  grace ;  the  God  of 
Abraham,  and  of  Moses,  and  Isaiah ;  the  God  of  Paul 
and  Athanasius,  of  Dante,  of  Luther,  of  Milton ;  the 
God  who  was  the  pole-star  of  the  founders  of  America 
and  the  inspiration  of  all  that  is  highest  in  the  life  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples — with  the  misty  and  confusing 
abstractions  of  Hindu  philosophy,  and  with  the  degrad- 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  117 

ing  idolatries  of  Hindu  polytheism,  Christianity  may 
well  feel  that  she  has  a  mission  to  perform  in  the  world 
of  India.  And  when  we  contrast  the  Christ  in  whom 
were  the  depths  of  the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and 
the  goodness  of  God,  the  Christ  of  Bethlehem,  Caper- 
naum and  Calvary,  with  the  immoral  deities  who,  in 
Hindu  fancy,  once  fought  and  frolicked  in  the  vales  of 
India,  we  ought  to  feel  that  we  have  a  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation  which  is  the  correction  and  completion  of 
all  that  the  Hindu  mind  has  vainly  dreamed  or  errone- 
ously imagined.  And  when  we  contrast  the  holy  men 
and  women  of  Christian  lands  with  the  strange,  often 
shocking,  and  always  ascetic  and  distorted  types  of  sanc- 
tity, the  Gurus  and  Mahunts  of  Hindu  monasteries  and 
temples,  we  may  well  feel  that  Asia  needs  the  regener- 
ating life  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth.  Or,  says  Dr.  Wash- 
burn, of  Madura,  "  if  Christian  womanhood  does  not 
protest  in  righteous  indignation,  let  us  put  side  by  side 
the  women  dedicated  to  the  service  of  God  in  the  Hin- 
du temple  and  the  deaconesses  and  sisters  of  charity  of 
Protestant  Christendom.  Keligion  would  show  its  most 
characteristic  truths  in  its  sincerest  devotees ;  and 
whether  you  take  the  official  classes  I  have  mentioned 
or  the  filthy  devotees  of  the  yellow  cloth,  and  compare 
them  with  the  nearest  approaching  class  in  Christen- 
dom, the  antithesis  is  immeasurable." 

In  the  last  hundred  years  Christianity  has  gone  to 
India  ;  has  gone  not  always  in  the  most  attractive  form  ; 
has  gone  with  the  sword  of  the  conqueror  in  its  hand ; 
has  oftentimes  been  ignorant  of  what  is  best  in  Hindu- 
ism, and  very  unskilful  in  its  way  of  meeting  it ;  has 
gone  with  a  frown  on  its  face,  it  may  be ;  has  brought 
to  that  ancient  vTorld  a  variety  of  opposing  representa- 


118  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

tives,  disturbing  the  mind  of  heathendom  by  the  jangle 
of  Christendom.  There  is  a  deep  chasm  existing  now 
between  the  educated  Hindu  and  the  average  mission- 
ary, and  some  of  the  stronger  men  in  our  missionary 
force  are  doing  what  they  are  able  to  fill  it  up.  All 
honor  to  the  evangelists  who  preach  Christ  in  the  vil- 
lages ;  but  equal  honor  belongs  to  the  scholarly  mission- 
aries who  are  opening  the  Scriptures  and  preaching 
Christ  in  the  colleges,  and  who  confront  the  thoughtful 
Hindus  with  an  equal  or  a  higher  culture.  Among  the 
best  evangelizers  of  such  a  land  as  India  are  Truth, 
Justice  and  Kindness ;  and  I  sometimes  feel  that  the 
greatest  of  these  is  Kindness.  The  Indians  are  a  proud, 
appreciative  and  grateful  people.  The  memory  of  their 
kindly  acts  is  a  chief  treasure  in  my  life,  and  I  met  many 
missionaries  who  feel  very  keenly  that  the  Kingdom  of 
Christ  has  been  retarded  by  failures  in  the  past  to  touch 
the  Hindu  spirit  with  that  love  whose  magic  is  "  potent 
over  sun  and  star."  The  Christian  messenger  does  not 
lose  any  of  his  immediate  or  permanent  influence  in 
non-Christian  lands  by  freely  and  gladly  acknowledging 
the  presence  of  admirable  elements  in  the  theory  and 
system  of  the  religion  which  he  comes  to  supplant.  He 
loses  nothing  and  gains  much  for  the  propagandism  so 
dear  to  his  heart,  by  permitting  love  to  infuse  and  sur- 
round all  his  zeal — a  love  which  recognizes  good  in  per- 
sons and  systems,  a  love  which  finds  expression  in  cour- 
tesy, kindness,  unpretentiousness  and  approachableness 
of  demeanor  and  the  habit,  as  well  as  the  temper,  of 
brotherliness.  O  the  souls  that  have  been  lost  to 
Christ  in  India  by  roughness  and  violence  of  spirit,  by 
pompous,  condescending  and  domineering  ways  toward 
men  of  gentler  tone  and  finer  fibre,  who  sometimes  think 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  119 

they  discover  more  of  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus  in  the 
mild  Buddha  of  the  past  or  the  humble  ascetic  of  to- 
day than  in  the  bullying  European  Christians  who  have 
come  to  teach  the  Beatitudes  which  they  do  not  always 
very  well  illustrate. 

Christian  missions  have  not  been  without  enormous 
effects  in  the  inauguration  of  reform,  in  undermining 
superstition,  in  abolishing  cruel  practices,  and  in  giving 
the  nation  higher  ideals  through  Jesus  Christ.  John 
Bright  offered  the  highest  praise  ever  given  to  English 
literature  when  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  its  wide 
diffusion  among  the  intelligent  people  of  India  must  oc- 
casion the  fall  of  the  system  of  caste  and  the  destruction 
of  debasing  idolatry.  "Christian  ideas  are  in  the  air, 
and  are  absorbed  even  by  those  who  intend  to  resist 
them  ;  and  scientific  ideas,  which  have  done  so  much  to 
purify  mediaeval  Christianity,  are  taking  hold  of  the 
Indian  mind.  The  Arya  Somaj  pays  a  high  tribute  to 
Christianity  by  borrowing  its  ethics  and  some  of  its 
doctrines,  and  promulgating  them,  as  Dr.  Ellin  wood  has 
said,  "  under  Yedic  labels  and  upon  Vedic  authority." 
The  greatest  of  modern  Hindus,  Keshub  Chunder  Sen, 
confessed  that  the  object  of  his  life  was  to  lead  his 
countrymen  to  Christ.  And  although  the  hasty  observ- 
er may  imagine  that  little  progress  has  been  made, 
still  in  no  other  part  of  the  world  has  the  Christian 
spirit  made  more  signal  triumphs  during  the  last  three 
decades  than  in  India.  And  Christian  morality,  accord- 
ing to  Sir  Henry  Maine,  has  penetrated  even  farther 
than  Christian  belief,  and  affects  the  morality  of  the 
modern  indigenous  literature.  And  he  believes  that 
the  English  administration  of  justice  has  been  a  power- 
ful unifying  agency,  affording  a  moral  basis  from  which 


120  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

a  new  set  of  moral  ideas  has  been  diffused  among  the 
people. 

The  wise  interpreters  of  Christianity  will  strive  to 
show  a  proud  and  intelligent  people  that  the  Gospel 
can  give  them  what  they  have  been  blindly  groping 
after  for  centuries.  The  old  Hinduism  cannot  regener- 
ate itself.  The  divine  force,  the  redeeming  love,  the 
higher  ethics,  which  went  forth  from  Palestine  in  the 
first  century  must  work  a  similar  miracle  for  India  in 
the  twentieth.  The  power  of  Christian  truth  will  be 
felt  in  its  fulness  when  Hindus  themselves  are  inspired 
to  tell  their  own  countrymen  the  message  of  Christ.  A 
vast  revolution  has  been  begun,  and  the  strong  fabric  of 
Hindu  society,  which  Buddhism  and  Mohammedanism 
could  not  destroy,  is  being  undermined  at  many  points ; 
but  the  nobler  Hindu  ideas  will  survive  the  destruction 
of  the  ignoble  social  system.  India  needs  Christ  to 
fulfil  her  own  loftiest  ideals.  And  the  wise  missionary 
will  be  inspired  and  instructed  to  show  that  in  Christi- 
anity, in  the  Person  and  teaching  and  Kingdom  of  Jesus 
Christ,  all  that  is  best  in  Hinduism  has  been  summed 
up  and  set  forth  in  transfigured  splendor.  Such  has 
been  the  method  of  the  past.  It  has  been  truly  said 
by  Dr.  George  A.  Gordon  :  "  Until  the  Jew  saw  his  Juda- 
ism transfigured  in  Christianity,  he  would  not  abandon 
the  old  faith  for  the  new ;  until  the  Greek  beheld  the 
vision  of  Plato  under  grander  forms  in  the  vision  { 
of  Christ,  he  could  not  forsake  the  Academy  for  the 
Church  ;  until  the  Boman  discovered  in  the  sign  of  the 
Cross  a  diviner  form  of  the  victorious  power  after  which 
he  thirsted,  he  could  not  change  his  allegiance  ;  and 
until  China  shall  see  Confucius  idealized  and  tran- 
scended in  our  Master,  and  Japan  her  beggarly  elements 


PHILOSOPHIC  HINDUISM  121 

glorified  in  the  Christian  inheritance,  and  India  her 
sublime  names  taken  out  of  the  region  of  imagination 
and  in  our  Lord  made  the  equivalent  of  the  moral  order 
of  the  universe,  we  cannot  expect  them  to  become  His 
disciples." 


CHAPTEE  V 

SOME    DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    HINDU    MIND   IN    REGAED  TO 

CHRISTIANITY 

I  am  to  speak  this  evening  on  some  of  the  intellectual 
difficulties — partly  real  and  partly,  I  fear,  pretended — 
which  I  discovered  among  the  Hindu  questioners  whom 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  meetiDg  last  winter.  The  hinder- 
ances  to  the  very  rapid  spread  of  Christianity  in  the 
Orient  are  many  and  formidable.  The  average  charac- 
ter of  the  Anglo-Indian  and  of  the  Europeans  found  in 
the  ports  and  larger  cities  of  Asia  does  not  commend 
Christianity  to  the  proud  and  intellectual  Orientals. 
But  besides  all  this,  the  Eastern  world  has  differeDt 
habits  of  thought  and  different  fundamental  ideas  from 
those  prevailing  in  the  West.  One  cannot  converse  ten 
minutes  with  a  bare-footed  Hindu  scholar  without  re- 
alizing that  different  standards,  different  ideals  of  worth, 
different  aims  predispose  the  Hindu  friend  to  regard 
with  distrust  or  aversion  the  Christian  thought  of  truth 
and  life.  There  is  a  vast  ignorance  even  among  edu- 
cated men  in  regard  to  the  great  names  in  history,  phil- 
osophy, theology  which  have  immense  weight  with  the 
Occidental  Christian.  Many  of  one's  literary  references 
are  entirely  unfamiliar  to  an  Oriental,  so  that  a  wise 
Western  speaker  who  adapts  himself  to  the  Hindus  will 
need  to  prune  his  discourses  of  much  that  would  be 
available   and   useful   for   Western   audiences.      Some 

122 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  123 

European  evangelists  have  been  surprised  that  their 
quotations  from  the  Christian  Scriptures  were  not  so 
weighty,  convincing  and  telling  in  their  addresses  to 
Hindu  congregations  as  they  had  expected.  Often,  in- 
deed, their  Bible  quotations  meaut  nothing  to  the  Ori- 
ental auditors ;  and  one  evangelist  found  that  all  his  pa- 
thetic references  to  father,  mother  and  home,  his  stories 
of  the  home-life,  were  entirely  thrown  away  on  compa- 
nies of  people  whose  knowledge  of  these  sanctities  was 
extremely  limited. 

I  deemed  it  very  important  at  the  outset  of  my  mis- 
sion to  make  clearly  understood  what  is  meant  by 
Christianity.  I  was  careful  not  to  identify  it  with  any 
form  of  ecclesiastical  government  or  any  special  system 
of  Western  theology.  The  Christianity  which  India 
needs,  and  which  the  Western  world  in  all  its  divisions 
accepts,  centres  in  the  life,  teachings  and  character  of 
Jesus  Christ,  as  portrayed  in  the  Gospels.  It  is  not 
merely  the  facts  and  truths  which  centre  in  Christ,  but  the 
divine,  loving  spirit  which  pervades  them  all.  Christi- 
anity is  a  life  shaped  by  Christian  ideals,  as  well  as  a 
truth  which  harmonizes  with  the  mind  of  Jesus.  It 
was  my  effort  to  remove  the  thoughts  of  my  hearers  so 
far  as  possible  from  things  extraneous  and  things  sec- 
ondary, and  to  concentrate  their  minds  on  what  is  vital 
and  essential.  It  was  my  hope  to  make  them  feel  that 
the  spirit  of  Christianity  was  one  of  utmost  kindness, 
of  largest  love,  of  the  truest  fraternity,  as  well  as  to  be- 
lieve the  glorious  Gospel  of  God's  redeeming  affection 
for  the  race  revealed  in  the  historic  incarnation  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  I  did  not  deny  the  existence  of 
mystery  in  the  universe.  I  did  not  claim  that  all  intel- 
lectual problems  had  been  solved ;  but  I  endeavored  to 


124  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

show  what  are  the  weighty  reasons  for  believing  that 
Christianity,  by  its  revelation  of  God,  by  its  disclosures 
in  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  clearness  of  its  teachings  in  re- 
gard to  the  life  that  now  is  and  the  life  that  is  to  come, 
by  the  purity  and  elevation  of  its  ethics,  by  the  wonder- 
ful adaptation  to  human  need  of  the  Man  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  by  its  historical  results,  and  by  its  present 
world-wide  aspects,  was  evidently  adapted  to  all  men's 
needs  and  would  become  universal. 

Now  it  is  in  accord  with  the  subtle  and  evasive  Hindu 
spirit  that  such  a  presentation  of  Christianity  should 
be  met  by  inquiries  like  the  following  :  "  How  is  the 
salvation  of  tempted  and  fallen  angels  to  be  effected  ?  " 
"  What  are  the  general  laws  of  creation  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  for  all  the  intelligences  and  non-intelligences 
of  the  universe  ?  "  One  would  suppose  that  sincere 
minds,  seeing  the  distraction  and  distress  and  uncount- 
able miseries  and  degradations  of  Hindu  society,  would 
be  willing  to  face  directly  the  questions  :  "Is  Christi- 
anity true  ?  Are  these  claims  which  the  lecturer  has 
made  well-founded  ?  Is  the  Christian  system  now  pre- 
dominant in  the  world  ?  Do  its  effects  surpass  those 
of  other  religions  ?  Are  our  Scriptures  so  well  adapted 
to  human  needs  as  the  Bible  ?  Have  we,  after  all,  so 
perfect  a  theism  as  that  set  forth  in  the  New  Testament  ? 
Is  there  any  spiritual  leader  that  we  have  produced 
worthy  to  stand  by  the  side  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Have  we 
any  such  evidences  of  a  historic  incarnation  as  those 
which  the  speaker  has  brought  forth  in  regard  to  the 
historic  character  of  the  Christian's  Saviour?"  After 
meeting  hundreds  of  non-Christian  scholars  and  reading 
hundreds  of  columns  criticising  the  addresses  given,  I 
must  confess  that  these  inquiries  were  rarely  if  ever 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  TUB  HINDU  MIND  125 

made.  The  Hindu  faculty  of  missing  the  point  was 
illustrated  on  several  occasions  during  my  three  months 
of  work  as  a  Christian  lecturer.  The  Hindu  chairman, 
at  the  close  of  one  of  my  addresses  in  Poona,  endeav- 
ored to  diminish  the  effectiveness  of  what  I  had  said  by 
eulogizing,  in  the  most  indiscriminate  way,  the  ethical 
glories — not  of  Hinduism,  his  own  religion — but  of 
Buddhism,  asserting  that  that  was  the  only  faith  which 
had  set  forth  the  principle  of  universal  love  to  all  creat- 
ures, that  was  the  religion  of  compassion  and  kindness. 
My  lecture  had  been  on  the  historical  effects  of  Christi- 
anity ;  and  the  Hindu  chairman,  instead  of  acknowledg- 
ing or  denying  the  accuracy  of  my  remarks,  brings  in 
an  irrelevant  and  unsupported  assertion  in  regard  to  a 
faith  which  Hinduism  cast  out.  Buddhism,  we  were 
told,  alone  taught  universal  compassion ;  but  we  were 
not  informed  what  had  been  the  historical  success  of 
Buddhism  in  making  men  really  kind  and  compassion- 
ate. There  was,  of  course,  no  reference  to  the  assertion 
which  has  been  made  that  in  Ceylon  the  people  were 
far  from  kind  to  dumb  animals,  and  that  in  China,  where 
Buddhism  claims  its  greatest  conquests,  human  cruelty 
has  its  most  terrible  manifestations. 

My  last  lecture  in  India  treated  of  the  historic  char- 
acter of  the  Gospels.  Twenty-five  or  thirty  distinct 
reasons  were  given  for  believing  in  the  historic  trust- 
worthiness of  the  evangelic  record.  A  vote  of  thanks 
was  moved ;  and,  in  seconding  the  motion,  a  Brahman 
lawyer  took  occasion  to  pour  out,  with  extreme  volubility, 
his  opposition  to  the  Gospel,  and,  among  other  things, 
he  said :  "  What  we  want  to  know  is  whether  Chris- 
tianity is  true.  We  want  a  lecturer  who  will  come  to 
us  and  give  us,  not  feelings  and  poetical  rhapsodies,  but 


126  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

real  definite  arguments  !  "  I  will  give  proper  credit  to 
the  audience,  and  repeat  that,  since  they  had  listened 
for  an  hour  and  a  half  to  my  twenty-five  or  thirty  rea- 
sons for  believing  in  the  Gospel  history,  they  greeted 
with  a  general  laugh  the  characteristic  suggestion  of  the 
Hindu  speaker  that  I  had  been  indulging  only  in  poet- 
ical rhapsodies. 

But  I  wish  to  occupy  the  remainder  of  the  hour  in 
giving  some  of  the  principal  inquiries  which  one  meets 
in  India,  together  with  the  spoken  or  written  answers 
with  which  they  were  met.  The  first  question  of  which 
I  shall  speak  is  the  following  :  "  Does  not  the  Almighty 
give  to  every  man  that  religion  which  He  sees  is  the 
best  fitted  for  him  ? ':  The  question  is  cunning  and 
sophistical ;  and  the  questioner  hoped  to  make  a  point 
against  Christianity,  whatever  way  it  was  answered.  If 
the  Almighty  does  give  to  every  man  that  religion 
which  He  sees  is  best  fitted  for  him,  what  right  have 
you  Christians  to  be  bothering  us  here  in  India  in  your 
efforts  to  make  us  surrender  the  faith  which  the  good 
God  has  seen  to  be  best  fitted  to  our  needs.  But  if  you 
say  that  the  Almighty  has  not  given  to  every  man  that 
religion  which  He  sees  to  be  best  fitted  for  him,  how 
can  you  claim  that  God  is  good,  benevolent,  loving  tow- 
ard His  creatures  ? 

The  answer  is  this  :  "  The  Almighty  does  not  give  to 
any  man  a  religion.  He  gives  him  knowledge  of  relig- 
ious truth,  in  different  degrees,  for  men  to  use  or  misuse. 
Religion  is  what  man  does  with  the  elements  of  truth 
which  God  spreads  before  him  to  use  or  misuse.  Re- 
ligion is  man's  devout  attitude  toward  the  environment 
in  which  God  places  him.  It  is  not  something  which 
God  fashions  and  thrusts  into  a  man's  hand  and  into  his 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  127 

life  against  his  own  will.  It  is  a  fact  plain  as  the  day 
that  God  has  given  to  men  different  degrees  of  illumina- 
tion. "We  may  quarrel  with  the  different  allotments  of 
men  in  material  and  moral  gifts  and  opportunities  ;  but 
they  are  different,  and  our  theology  may  not  be  able  to 
explain  the  diversity.  But  men  will  be  judged  by  the 
good  or  bad,  the  wise  or  unwise,  use  which  they  make 
of  these  powers,  illuminations  and  opportunities.  Your 
dogmatic  and  sophistical  question :  Does  not  the  Al- 
mighty give  to  every  man  that  religion  which  He  sees 
is  best  fitted  for  him  ?  is  meant  to  condemn  the  efforts 
of  those  who  have  the  more  light  to  instruct  and  to 
guide  the  multitudes  who  have  less.  God  works  through 
human  agencies  to  bring  the  best  things  to  His  children, 
and  so  God  is  giving,  through  Christian  apostles  and 
their  successors,  knowledge  of  the  best  religion  to  those 
who  have  darkened  the  light  already  received.  You 
cannot  stop  the  efforts  of  sensible  and  benevolent  men 
to  help  their  fellows  in  distress  by  claiming  that  God 
has  already  given  to  those  distressed  human  beings  what 
is  best  for  them.  I  find  a  man  sick  of  malaria  in  an 
Indian  jungle.  The  air  he  breathes  is  poisonous  and 
fever-laden,  and  I  say  to  him  : '  Get  upon  my  horse,  and 
go  with  me  to  yonder  hills  where  the  air  is  pure.'  But 
the  Hindu  sufferer  from  fever  declines,  and  says  :  '  Does 
not  the  Almighty  give  to  every  man  that  air  which  He 
sees  is  best  fitted  for  him  ? '  The  atmosphere  which 
God  wants  the  sick  man  to  breathe  blows  on  yonder 
hill-tops,  and  the  man  is  an  idiot  and  a  sinner  for  not 
accepting  the  help  which  will  carry  him  to  those  pure 
and  breezy  heights.  I  see  a  nation  breathing  moral 
malaria  in  the  Hindu  jungle.  That  nation  once  had 
purer  air,  but  voluntarily  it  has  descended  to  the  pesti- 


128  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

lence-breeding  morass.  I  go  to  it  and  say :  '  Come  and 
dwell  with  us  on  Calvary  and  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes ; ' 
but  the  complacent  and  foolish  response  is  made  :  '  The 
Almighty  has  given  to  every  man  that  religion  which 
He  sees  is  best  fitted  for  him  ! '  And  he  is  contented 
with  a  religion  which  is  fitted  to  his  ethical  inertia,  his 
dreamy  mysticism,  and  his  self-satisfied  degradation." 

A  very  common  inquiry  was  the  following  :  "Is  faith 
in  the  historic  Christ  essential  to  salvation  ?     If  so,  what 
became  of  those  who  lived  before  the  advent  of  Christ, 
or  who  never  heard  of  Him  ?  "     Before  a  large  company 
of  people  in  Palamcottah,  I  ventured  the  assertion  that, 
in  view  of  the  belief  that  the  Old  Testament  saints  were 
saved,  no  missionary  in  India  asserts  that  faith  in  the 
historic  Christ  has  always  been  essential  to  salvation ; 
and  there  was  an  affirmative  response  from  the  mission- 
aries present.     The  Hindus  love  to  fling  in  the  faces  of 
Christians  difficulties  which  they  themselves  have  made, 
or  which   have  been   suggested  to  them  by  sceptical 
writers  from  Europe  or  America,  or  which  represent  a 
cruder  theology  than  that  which  is  taught  to-day.    They 
love  to  make  it  appear  that  God  left  the  world  to  perish, 
without  any  provision  for  its  salvation,  for  four  thousand 
or  many  more  thousand  years,  until  Jesus  was  born  in 
Bethlehem ;  and  that  after  that  no  provision  was  made 
for  the  salvation  of  any  who,  from  no  fault  of  their  own, 
had  not  heard  of  the  historic  Christ,  and  accepted  Him 
and,  as  it  is  usually  said,  some  particular  doctrine  con- 
cerning Him,  like  the  atonement.     Of  course,  all  this 
is  an  immense  and  gross  slander  on  the  God  of  all  grace, 
the  God  of  redemption.     It  is  a  complete  ignoring  of 
the  general  principles  of  the  divine  administration  and 
of  particular  teachings  in  the  Scriptures. 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  129 

I  inquired :  "  Where  is  the  Christian  teacher  in 
America,  where  is  the  missionary  in  India,  who  teaches 
or  ever  taught  that  all  that  lived  previous  to  the  Chris- 
tian era  are  lost  ?  "  and  to  this  question  I  never  received 
any  reply.  I  then  said  :  We  are  told  that  Christ  is  the 
"Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  He 
Himself  said,  "  Before  Abraham  was  I  am."  We  be- 
lieve that  He  represents  to  men  the  wondrous  grace  and 
mercy  of  God,  and  that  eternal  provision  has  been 
made  for  human  need.  We  who  are  orthodox  Chris- 
tians hold  the  theory  that,  on  the  ground  of  this  eternal 
provision  made  in  God's  nature,  and  which  receives  its 
historic  consummation  in  the  Christ  of  Calvary,  peni- 
tent souls  are  saved.  We  do  not  believe  that  such 
souls  among  God's  chosen  people,  however  dimly  they 
may  have  seen  the  Christ  of  history,  were  cast  away ; 
and  the  Scriptures  give  us  glimpses  of  the  working  of 
God's  spirit  and  truth  outside  of  Judaism.  Tertullian 
speaks  of  souls  that  are  naturally  Christian ;  and  stu- 
dents of  comparative  religion  are  discovering  that  there 
are  elements  of  the  Gospel  in  pagan  lands,  not  always 
clear,  but  still  there  are  intimations  of  faith  in  God's 
mercy  and  God's  willingness  to  accept  the  penitent  dis- 
position. It  is  the  teaching  of  Jesus  that  men  are  to 
be  judged  according  to  their  light.  Paul  speaks  of  the 
law  of  God  written  on  the  heart,  and  of  the  human 
conscience  as  "  accusing  or  else  excusing "  the  soul. 
We  have  no  mathematics  to  determine  how  many  are 
saved ;  but  we  know  that  God  is  just  and  merciful,  and 
that  His  mercy  has  not  been  limited  within  the  bounds 
of  Judaism  and  Christianity.  You  have  sadly  dimmed 
the  truth  and  perverted  the  truth  which  has  come  to 
the  loftiest  minds,  and  touched  also  the  common  mind 

9 


130  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

of  the  non-Christian  world.  Men  everywhere  need  the 
perfect  historic  disclosure  of  God's  mercy  made  through 
Jesus  Christ.  His  is  the  only  "name  given  under 
heaven  whereby  we  must  be  saved."  On  the  ground 
of  what  Christ  was  and  what  Christ  did,  according  to 
Biblical  teaching,  salvation  has  been  provided,  deliver- 
ance from  the  love  of  sin  and  the  guilt  of  sin,  whether 
men  lived  before  or  after  the  great  historic  manifesta- 
tion. Whether  they  knew  of  it  or  not,  Christ  is  God's 
eternal  provision  for  man's  deliverance  ;  but  do  not  be 
so  foolish  as  to  say  that  because  men  have  a  little  light 
which  they  have  sinfully  darkened,  therefore  they  do 
not  need  more  light.  Every  fact  that  is  presented  to 
the  eye  in  India,  and  almost  every  rumor  that  comes  to 
the  ear,  shows  conclusively  that  men  do  sadly  need  the 
illumination  so  gracious,  so  helpful,  so  transforming, 
and  which  comes  from  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels.  Out- 
side the  area  touched  by  that  light,  I  find  that  the 
realms  of  darkness  are  grievously  wide  and  dense.  Do 
not  puzzle  your  minds  with  the  problem  of  the  salva- 
tion of  men  living  before  the  Christian  era,  and  of  men 
who  have  not  yet  heard  the  Gospel  which  has  come  to 
your  ears,  and  by  which  you  are  to  be  judged ;  but 
rather  do  three  things.  First,  believe  that  those  prob- 
lems have  been  solved,  or  will  be  solved,  by  a  gracious 
God,  in  accordance  with  principles  of  perfect  equity. 
Secondly,  receive  into  your  hearts  the  light  which  shines 
from  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  find  peace  and  assur- 
ance of  eternal  life  through  Him  ;  and,  thirdly,  make  it 
the  business  of  your  lives  to  carry  that  light  to  all  who 
grope  in  darkness. 

Another   question   put   to   me   by   members   of   the 
Brahmo  Somaj  indicates  a  misunderstanding  of  New 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  131 

Testament  teaching  :  "How  can  the  sacrifice  of  Christ's 
mere  body  atone  for  the  sins  of  the  soul  ?  " 

I  answered,  "  It  does  not,  and  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
was  not  the  sacrifice  of  merely  His  physical  body.  His 
heart  was  wrung  by  the  sight  of  human  sin  ;  His  affec- 
tions were  lacerated ;  His  sensitive  and  sympathetic 
nature  endured  spiritual  anguish ;  and  it  was  the  total 
sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God  that  indicated  the  depth  of 
the  divine  affection  for  men.  It  was  by  the  total  sacri- 
fice of  Himself  that  the  reconciliation  of  God  and  man 
was  effected." 

Another  inquiry  was  the  following  :  "  Why  should 
there  be  only  one  Saviour  ?  "     I  replied  : 

"  Because  there  is  only  one  God.  The  Hindu  and 
Buddhist  idea  of  a  saviour  may  justify  a  faith  in  many 
such  beings.  The  Christian  idea  justifies  a  faith  in  but 
one  such.  Only  the  divine  can  save  the  human,  and 
there  is  no  more  reason  for  multiplying  divine  Saviours 
than  for  multiplying  divine  Creators.  The  Christian 
revelation  of  '  God  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto 
Himself,'  is  the  all-sufficient  answer  to  the  inquiry  here 
made.  The  effort  of  Hindu  and  Buddhist  speculation 
to  multiply  saviours  is  simply  another  form  of  the  effort 
to  bring  Jesus  Christ  down  to  the  level,  not  only  of  Soc- 
rates and  Buddha,  but  also  of  every  prophet  with  a  new 
panacea  for  human  salvation." 

"  Are  Americans  more  religious  than  Hindus  ?  "  The 
reply  was : 

"The  answer  depends  upon  what  is  meant  by  re- 
ligious. If  by  religion  is  meant  religious  ceremonials, 
performed  through  the  force  of  immemorial  custom  ;  if 
by  religion  is  meant  terror  before  unknown,  supernatural 
powers,  and  fear  in  the  presence  of  threatening  priests ; 


132  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

if  by  religion  you  mean  bondage  to  superstitions  which 
educated  Indians  are  rapidly  casting  off,  then  the  Hin- 
dus are  more  religious  than  the  Americans.  But  if  by 
religion  is  meant,  with  the  Apostle  James,  '  visiting  the 
widow  and  the  fatherless  in  their  affliction,  and  keep- 
ing one's  self  unspotted  from  the  world  ; '  if  by  re- 
ligion is  meant,  with  Jesus  Christ,  supreme  love  to  God 
the  Father  and  fraternal  love  to  all  men  ;  if  by  religion 
is  meant,  with  the  Apostle  Paul,  the  attainment  of  a 
complete  manhood  under  the  inspiration  of  the  highest 
Christian  ideals,  then  the  Americans,  with  all  their  faults 
and  shortcomings,  are,  in  my  judgment,  more  religious 
than  the  Hindus.  Religious  sentiment  and  conviction 
have  entered  into  our  national  life  and  institutions. 
With  us,  because  we  are  Christians,  ethics  is  an  essen- 
tial part  of  religion,  and  religion  must  be  realized  eth- 
ically. There  is  a  national  conscience,  which  is  smiting 
the  chief  evils  which  still  afflict  us.  Men  more  and  more 
feel  their  obligation  to  show  their  love  to  God  by  gifts, 
efforts  and  prayers  in  behalf  of  the  destitute  and  dark- 
ened and  unfortunate  in  our  land  and  in  all  lands. 
Emerson  calls  Sunday  "  the  core  of  our  civilization." 
It  is  a  day  dedicated  to  the  higher  things  of  the  soul. 
It  is  a  day  for  intellectual  and  spiritual  enlightenment, 
and  for  benevolent  service.  Religion,  with  us,  has  its 
expression  in  the  building  of  hospitals  as  well  as 
churches,  of  universities  as  well  as  Sunday  schools  ;  in 
College  settlements,  for  the  advantage  of  the  poor  in 
our  great  cities,  as  well  as  in  the  scores  of  millions  of 
dollars  which  have  gone  to  the  sending  of  Christian 
missionaries,  teachers  and  physicians  into  distant 
lands." 

"Of  the  accepted  religions,  Mohammedanism  is  the 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  133 

latest  faith  ;  and  as  such,  does  it  not  have  the  best  claim 
for  general  acceptance  ?  " 

I  said  :  "  According  to  this  logic,  if  a  religion  rises 
in  the  twentieth  century  and  is  widely  received,  it 
would  have  the  best  claim  for  general  acceptance,  even 
if  its  ethical  and  spiritual  plane  were  far  lower  than  that 
of  Mohammedanism.  No,  it  is  manifestly  absurd  to  de- 
clare that  the  latest  in  anything  is  necessarily  the  best. 
On  this  foolish  supposition,  one  might  claim  that  every 
picture  which  is  received  and  admired  to-day  in  the 
Salons  of  Paris  is  a  better  work  of  art  than  the  Sistine 
Madonna,  or  that  the  latest  great  poems  which  become 
popular  in  our  time  must  surpass  the  plays  of  Shake- 
speare and  the  Iliad  of  Homer.  According  to  this  logic, 
Mormonism  and  Sikhisin  are — because  later — superior 
to  Parseeism,  Judaism,  and  Mohammedanism.  But  the 
best  claim  to  general  acceptance  belongs,  of  course,  to 
that  religion  whose  disclosures  of  truth  are  the  highest, 
completest,  most  certain  and  most  authoritative  ;  whose 
fundamental  and  central  teachings  in  regard  to  God 
and  man  are  the  purest  and  most  life-giving ;  whose 
ethical  ideas  and  spiritual  conceptions  are  the  freest 
from  anything  ignoble  or  merely  transient ;  whose  spir- 
itual dynamics,  through  which  its  ideals  are  realized,  are 
the  most  potent." 

Another  inquiry  was  this  :  "  Do  you  believe  that  God 
has  revealed  Himself  in  every  country  and  in  every 
age  ?  "     I  answered  : 

"  Certainly.  The  realm  of  revelation  is  world-wide. 
This  truth  I  assert  over  and  over  again  in  my  lectures, 
in  various  forms.  This  truth  is  asserted  in  the  Chris- 
tian Scriptures.  Paul  speaks  of  '  the  law  of  God  written 
on  the  heart,'  and  declares  that  God  hath  not  left  Him- 


134  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

self  without  witness  among  the  nations.  The  Fourth 
Gospel  speaks  of  the  Logos  as  '  the  original  light  en- 
lightening every  man.'  These  various  revelations  have 
been  much  dimmed,  distorted,  and  intermixed  with 
guess-work,  error,  and  invention  ;  and  I  never  feel  more 
profoundly  the  need  of  such  a  complete,  final,  and  au- 
thoritative revelation  as  has  been  given  through  Jesus 
Christ  than  when  I  read  the  strange  combinations  of 
truth  and  error  which  are  found  in  the  Sacred  Books  of 
the  East.  I  look  upon  the  Biblical  revelation,  culmi- 
nating in  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  incom- 
plete disclosures,  mixed  with  so  much  that  is  irrelevant 
and  misleading  and  uncertain,  which  are  found  in  the 
non-Christian  religions." 

One  inquiry  was  this  :  "  Why  should  not  man  come 
to  God  directly,  without  the  intervention  of  a  Medi- 
ator ?  "     The  reply  was  : 

"  Men  do  come  directly  to  God  through  conscience, 
through  the  touch  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  and  through  Nat- 
ure ;  but  there  is  a  fuller  knowledge  of  God  which  has 
been  disclosed  through  Jesus  Christ.  Men  generally 
have  thought  that  a  Mediator  was  necessary,  for  some 
form  of  Mediatorship  inheres  in  many  religions.  The 
priesthoods  of  the  world  indicate  the  general  human 
conviction  that  men  need  some  one  or  something,  like  a 
sacrifice,  to  stand  between  them  and  God.  Christianity 
puts  mediatorship  in  the  very  heart  of  God  :  '  God  was 
in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself.'  Christ, 
the  Mediator,  is  central  in  the  Christian  religion.  He 
was  apparently  conscious  of  perfect  unity  with  God  and 
man.  Knowing  Him,  we  know  the  Father.  He  makes 
God  real  to  us  by  showing  us  the  divine  heart  of  God 
in  Himself.     Hindus  have  sometimes  said  that  Jesus 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  135 

Christ  added  to  their  knowledge  of  God.  I  believe  that 
only  through  the  medium  of  Christ's  life  and  teaching 
can  men  get  their  best  apprehensions  of  the  Divine  Nat- 
ure. I  think  that  men  should  consider  Christ's  medi- 
atorship  in  this  broad  sense.  While  I  believe  that,  in 
a  stricter  and  more  limited  sense,  He  is  a  Mediator  by 
whom  every  obstacle  to  human  salvation  has  been  re- 
moved, I  would  also  have  the  world  look  at  Him  as  the 
Supreme  Revealer  of  the  Divine  Love — that  Love  which, 
in  Him  and  through  Him,  takes  from  human  hearts  the 
burden,  the  pollution,  and  the  desire  of  sin.  I  have 
found  in  India  intellectual  and  religious  unrest.  Men 
are  not  satisfied  with  their  inherited  creeds.  They  are 
looking  around,  within,  and  above  for  something  which 
heals  and  contents  the  soul ;  and  I  shall  be  grateful  and 
happy  if  my  visit  to  India  should  induce  some  of  its 
open-minded  and  lovable  people  to  consider  attentively 
and  candidly  the  peerless  Christianity  of  Christ." 

"  What  is  the  origin  of  good  and  evil  ?  "  The  reply 
was : 

"  Good  has  its  origin  in  God.  As  to  moral  evil,  so 
far  as  our  human  life  is  concerned,  it  evidently  entered 
into  the  world  at  an  early  period  of  man's  history,  and 
came  from  his  preference  of  a  lower  over  a  higher  good. 
Man  early  chose  to  follow  the  animal  in  him,  refusing  to 
obey  the  divine.  Back  of  the  earthly  history  of  moral 
evil,  the  Scriptures  give  us  glimpses  of  diabolic  forces 
and  personalities  ;  but  of  these  we  know  little." 

"Do  you  believe  in  the  law  of  Karma?" 

"  Yes,  in  so  far  as  it  means  that  there  is  a  law  of  mor- 
al retribution  in  the  universe.  I  stand  on  the  Pauline 
doctrine  that  '  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he 
also  reap,'  while  I   also  accept  the   New    Testament 


136  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

teaching  that  there  is  a  divine  regenerating  and  sancti- 
fying power  which  is  able  to  bring  sinful  men  under  the 
dominion  of  a  higher  law." 

One  of  the  commonest  questions  put  to  me  in  India 
related  to  my  impressions  of  that  country  and  its  peo- 
ple :     "  How  do  you  like  India  ?  " 

I  could  only  answer  in  the  briefest  way  such  compre- 
hensive inquiries.  "India  is  a  land  of  wonders  and 
anomalies.  My  interest  has  been  deepened  and  my  af- 
fection quickened  during  these  months  in  which  I  have 
had  the  pleasure  of  conversing  with  many  of  your  most 
enlightened  people.  My  heart  goes  out  to  this  country 
in  its  present  deep  distress,  and  I  pray  that  the  terrible 
afflictions  of  famine  and  plague  may  soon  be  removed. 
It  may  take  very  much  longer  to  remove  the  darkness  of 
superstition  and  ignorance  covering  most  of  the  many 
millions  of  the  country.  It  appears  to  me  that  your  en- 
lightened leaders,  instead  of  fostering  the  national,  ex- 
clusive spirit,  which  is  unwilling  to  receive  the  best 
things  from  whatever  source  they  may  come,  would  do 
well  to  direct  the  mind  of  the  educated  youth  and  others 
toward  the  main  sources  of  India's  present  helplessness, 
sorrow  and  distress.  I  am  profoundly  impressed  with 
the  lack  of  unity  prevailing  in  India.  It  is  an  aggrega- 
tion of  peoples,  governments,  religions,  classes  where 
the  divisions  are  woful  indeed.  It  is  perfectly  evident 
that,  if  the  wise,  restraining  hand  of  British  rule  were 
removed,  chaos  would  prevail ;  and  the  Hindus  and  Mo- 
hammedans in  some  places  would  be  flying  at  each 
other's  throats.  There  are  few  countries  where  religious 
intolerance  seems  so  general  and  cruel  as  here.  India 
is  living  in  a  state  of  society  which,  so  far  as  religious 
intolerance  is  concerned,  appears  to  us  Americans  most 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  137 

distressing.  The  alphabet  of  true  toleration  has  yet  to 
be  learned  by  great  sections  of  the  community.  I  know 
that  Hinduism  is  willing  that  men  should  hold  a  variety 
of  incongruous  creeds,  but  religion  is  not  merely  a  creed ; 
it  is  also  a  life,  where  the  conditions  and  environments 
ought  to  be  in  harmony  with  the  inner  convictions.  The 
religions  of  India  have  been  trying  here,  as  at  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Religions,  to  make  themselves  as  Christian  as 
possible  ;  but  when  members  of  the  Hindu  community, 
convinced  of  the  truth  and  rightful  claims  of  Christian- 
ity, prepare  to  confess  Christ  and  enter  into  fellowship 
with  His  people,  these  Christian  disciples  still  meet 
relentless  and  often  cruel  opposition.  They  are  some- 
times disowned,  prohibited  from  seeing  their  own  rela- 
tions, deprived  of  just  inheritances,  assailed  with  false- 
hood, with  blows,  and  now  and  then  tortured.  Some  of 
the  noblest  specimens  of  human  character  and  some  of  the 
finest  and  most  enlightened  intellects  which  I  have  met 
in  any  land  are  in  the  native  Christian  communities  of 
India." 

Two  questions  that  show  the  high  opinion  which 
Hinduism  has  of  itself  were  the  following  :  "  Has  Chris- 
tianity ever  had  to  contend  with  a  religion  which  had  a 
sound  philosophy  for  its  basis,  and  whose  people  were 
highly  civilized  ?  '  and  "  Hinduism  is  highly  eclectic, 
and  will  Christianity  make  a  stand  against  such  a  re- 
ligion ?  "  I  replied  to  these  questions :  "  With  some 
explanations  and  limitations,  it  may  be  truly  said  that 
the  Graeco-Ptoman  world  was  a  congeries  of  nations  in 
which  a  sound  philosophy  was  not  wanting,  and  some 
of  whose  people  were  in  a  high  state  of  civilization. 
Christianity  met  this  world  and  finally  overcame  it. 
The  early  Christian  fathers  had,  many  of  them,  a  great 


138  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

liking  for  the  Greek  philosophy,  which  they  studied, 
and  which  some  of  them  regarded  as  a  school-master 
leading  to  Christ.  Dr.  Fairbairn  of  Oxford  and  others 
have  ably  shown  how  Christianity,  in  a  measure,  ab- 
sorbed into  itself  the  philosophic  systems  of  classical 
antiquity,  both  utilizing  and  ennobling  them.  The  civ- 
ilization of  the  Boman  Empire,  into  which  Christianity 
entered,  was  complicated,  advanced,  highly  intellectual, 
adorned  with  great  cities,  rich  in  luxury,  starred  with 
philosophic  schools,  proud  of  a  literature,  some  of  it 
inherited  from  the  golden  period  of  Greek  learning, 
which  is  the  world's  delight  to-day,  and  ennobled  with  a 
sculptural  art  which  has  not  since  been  equalled.  Out 
of  the  Grseco-Eoman  world  Christianity  built  the  mod- 
ern world,  or,  rather,  from  the  former  the  latter  has 
grown.  It  appears  to  me  that  the  philosophy  which 
Christianity  found  in  the  first  and  second  centuries  had 
a  sounder  constitution  in  some  respects  than  the  philos- 
ophies of  the  Eastern  thinkers.  There  was  a  more 
definite  recognition  of  the  personal  God  and  of  the  re- 
sponsible human  personality.  A  pantheistic  blight  did 
not  cover  the  speculations  of  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aris- 
totle. There  is  a  certain  vigor  and  validity  to  the  think- 
ing of  Greece  and  Rome  which  the  modern  mind  must 
highly  respect.  Surely  the  civilization  of  the  Graeco- 
Roraan  world  was,  in  important  particulars,  more  ad- 
vanced than  any  civilization  which  Christianity  has 
since  met. 

"  The  so-called  paganism  of  ancient  Greece  and  Rome 
became  very  eclectic.  The  Neo-Platonism  of  Alexan- 
dria was  a  marvellous  eclecticism,  and  Christianity  not 
only  made  a  stand  against  it,  but  overcame  it.  I  prefer 
to  call  Hinduism  omnivorous  rather  than  strictly  eclec- 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  139 

tic.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  does  not  select  truths  and 
parts  of  systems  here  and  there,  combining  them  into  a 
new  and  more  perfect  whole  ;  but  it  endeavors  to  absorb 
everything  indiscriminately,  with  the  result  that  it  be- 
comes more  vague  and  less  distinct  than  ever.  There 
is  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  the  claims  of  certain  Hindu 
scholars  that  Hinduism  is  a  social  condition  in  which 
any  kind  of  religion — theism,  polytheism,  or  pantheism 
— may  have  a  home.  If  this  be  true,  then  its  downfall  is 
certain,  and  possibly  not  very  distant ;  for  caste,  or  the 
Hindu  social  system,  is  being  undermined  by  a  hundred 
forces.  It  is  being  modified  or  utterly  thrown  away  by  the 
Hindu  reformers,  who  are  sure  to  increase  in  numbers 
and  influence  with  the  progress  of  enlightenment  and 
humanity.  Of  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  Hinduism 
is  the  most  unsystematic  and  ill-defined.  Those  who 
have  lived  in  India  for  years  affirm  that  they  can  scarcely 
find  two  Hindus  who  are  agreed  even  as  to  fundamentals. 
In  my  conversations  with  pundits,  the  friend  with  whom 
I  am  talking  always  affirms  that  some  other  pundit's 
Hinduism  is  not  genuine.  All  this  is  in  contrast  with 
Christianity.  In  spite  of  the  divisions  among  Chris- 
tians, the  various  churches  at  work  in  India  are  heartily 
in  accord  as  to  the  fundamental  facts  and  truths  which 
are  contained  in  the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed." 

Another  question  was  this  :  "  Do  you  not  see  any 
similarity  between  the  spread  of  Christianity  to-day  and 
the  spread  of  Buddhism  in  ancient  times,  when  it  was 
supported  by  the  State  ?  "     I  replied  : 

"There  is  a  similarity  in  the  progress  of  both  re- 
ligions. But  I  see  a  closer  similarity  between  the  spread 
of  Christianity  to-day  and  the  spread  of  ancient  Buddh- 
ism  before  it   was   supported    by   the   State.      Early 


140  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Buddhism  was  diffused  by  the  preaching  of  bands  of 
earnest  men,  who  found  the  people  tired  of  the  formal- 
ism and  pettiness  and  bondage  of  the  Brahmanic  priest- 
hood. With  its  teaching  of  brotherhood  and  its  deliv- 
erance for  all  through  the  eight-fold  path,  it  must  have 
met  some  of  the  needs  of  the  human  soul.  Unfortu- 
nately, Gautama  had  no  perception  of  man's  chief  need 
— namely,  a  loving  God.  And  therefore  the  moral  prog- 
ress possible  to  Buddhism  was  limited.  Christianity, 
with  its  perfect  theism  and  its  perfect  ethics,  meets  all 
spiritual  needs.  Its  spread  to-day  is  owing  to  the 
power  of  truth  and  love,  and  not  to  any  support  from  the 
State.  An  increasing  interest  is  felt  in  Christian  lands 
for  the  work  in  non-Christian.  Thousands  of  lives  and 
many  millions  of  rupees  have  been  given  to  Christian 
toil  and  effort  outside  the  bounds  of  Christendom. 
These  offerings  are  free-will,  voluntary  and  independent 
of  any  help  from  the  State." 

"  With  the  primitive  means  of  communication,  was 
not  the  spread  of  early  Buddhism  marvellous  ?  "  I  said : 

"  The  means  of  communication  do  not  appear  to  me 
a  very  important  element  in  the  early  history  of  either 
Buddhism,  Christianity  or  Mohammedanism.  Similar 
means  were  open  to  all.  The  early  progress  of  Buddh- 
ism may  be  called  '  marvellous,'  in  that  it  was  rapid  and 
wide.  But,  in  reality,  it  was  not  wonderful  that  men 
should  welcome  almost  anything  as  an  escape  from  the 
fearful  Brahmanic  tyranny.  I  prefer  to  apply  the  word 
'  marvellous '  to  the  progress  made  by  a  faith  like  the 
Christian,  which  encountered  antagonisms  immensely 
stronger  and  more  relentless  than  anything  which  the 
followers  of  Buddha  met.  A  system  like  Christianity, 
demanding  perfect  loyalty  to  God  and  equal  love  to 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  141 

men,  and  permitting  no  compromises  like  that  of  Buddh- 
ism when  it  consented  to  be  one  of  the  three  religions 
in  China,  makes  progress  by  overcoming  the  most  ob- 
durate pride  and  all  the  entrenched  wickedness  of  man ; 
and,  therefore,  I  regard  its  early  advance  as  one  of 
the  chief  wonders  of  history.  Its  real  progress  to-day 
among  non- Christian  peoples  is  owing  to  the  special 
presence  and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  inspiring  love, 
creating  purity,  renewing  the  soul." 

That  men  in  India  do  not  realize  the  abject  condition 
of  the  people  as  keenly  as  we  do  is  evident  from  the 
following  questions  :  "  If  it  were  given  to  you,  would 
you  like  to  live  the  simple  life  of  India  ?  '  The  answer 
was : 

"  I  am  not  sure  that  I  understand  what  is  meant  by 
1  the  simple  life  of  India.'  If  it  means  the  half-clothed 
distress,  the  pitiful  hunger  of  the  many  millions  who,  not 
merely  in  years  of  famine,  but  generally,  live  in  mud 
hovels  without  the  comforts  which  are  enjoyed  by  some 
of  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  North  America,  I  should 
neither  like  it  for  myself  nor  for  the  poorest  and  most 
abject  people  of  Europe  and  America.  What  Emerson 
meant  by  plain  living,  coupled  with  high  thinking,  I 
deem  a  note  of  the  truest  civilization.  Enervating  lux- 
uries and  the  extravagances  of  fast  living  are  not  whole- 
some in  any  part  of  the  world.  But  I  believe  that  the 
body  should  be  cared  for — decently  clothed,  comfortably 
housed,  and  properly  fed — so  that  it  may  be  the  best 
instrument  of  a  vigorous  mind  and  a  pure  heart.  And 
therefore  I  look  upon  the  '  simple  life  '  of  the  naked 
mendicant  and  the  dirty  fakir  as  neither  an  ornament 
nor  a  credit  to  religion  and  humanity.  Of  course,  there 
have  been  ascetic  developments  here  and  there  in  Chris- 


142  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

tian  history  of  which  I  would  speak  in  a  similar  way  ; 
but  they  mostly  belong  to  a  remote  period  of  the  past. 
The  opportunity  and  the  freedom  which  belong  to  the 
British  and  American  nationalities,  a  gift  to  them  in  a 
large  measure  from  Christianity,  have  delivered  the  vast 
majority  of  the  people  from  the  material  and,  it  seems 
to  me,  debasing  conditions  which  prevail  almost  every- 
where in  India.  I  know  that  there  are  inequalities  in 
Christendom,  and  there  is  much  room  for  improvement 
in  the  distribution  of  wealth ;  but  more  than  nine-tenths 
of  the  people  are  advanced  from  that  state  of  close  ap- 
proximation to  mere  animalism  in  physical  conditions 
which  distresses  me  in  my  observations  here.  I  am  well 
aware  that  under  the  just  over-rule  of  Great  Britain 
material  conditions  have  much  improved.  With  peace 
and  justice,  progress  has  been  made.  But  far  greater 
progress  is  still  demanded,  in  order  that  India  may 
escape  from  the  curse  of  what  is  now  a  '  simple  life ' — a 
life  which  is  utterly  unfitted  for  a  being  like  man,  with 
a  soul  capable  of  noble  hungers,  living  in  a  world  which 
ought  to  meet  his  many  material,  intellectual  and  moral 
wants.  So  long  as  agriculture  is  the  all  but  universal 
occupation  of  the  people,  their  material  advancement 
will  be  retarded.  Diversified  industries  and  the  growth 
of  manufactures  are  needed.  The  building  up  of  indus- 
trial and  technical  schools  will  doubtless  be  a  help  in 
these  directions." 

A  very  common  question  which  your  representatives 
meet,  and  which  I  met,  is  the  following:  "Do  you  not 
believe  in  the  ultimate  salvation  of  all  souls ;  and,  if  not, 
is  not  your  Christianity  inferior  to  Hinduism,  which 
provides  for  the  salvation  of  all  ?  "     I  said  in  reply  : 

"  In  meeting  such  an  inquiry,  one  must  ask,  what  is 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  143 

meant  by  salvation  in  either  case  ?  With  the  Hindu,  it 
is  not  deliverance  from  the  guilt  and  pollution  of  sin, 
but  final,  unconscious  absorption  into  the  one  immeas- 
urable All.  And  even  this  is  open  only  to  Brahmans. 
The  other  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  people  are  with- 
out saving  worship  or  ceremonies.  They  must  go  on 
following  custom  until  8,400,000  of  re-births,  with  all 
the  horrors  of  animal  and  demonic  existence,  shall 
finally  bring  them  into  a  state  to  be  born  Brahmans. 
Christianity  promises  an  immediate  transfer  to  a  life  of 
perfect  blessedness  and  endless  growth,  and  makes  this 
promise  to  all  who  accept  God's  merciful  provision. 
The  salvation  which  Hinduism  offers,  after  measureless 
and  merciless  cycles  of  sorrow,  is  really  not  worth  hav- 
ing ;  its  eternities  are  not  equivalent  to  one  moment  of 
the  Christian's  heaven.  Hinduism  robs  salvation  of  all 
moral  value,  and  then  hedges  its  worthless  treasure 
about  with  the  thorns  and  briars  of  8,400,000  miserable 
reincarnations.  Christianity  does  provide  what  is  ade- 
quate for  the  final  salvation  of  all.  There  is  no  lack  on 
God's  part,  as  He  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  Christian 
Scriptures.  He  would  have  all  men  saved ;  and,  if 
they  are  not,  the  blame  can  never  justly  be  laid  at  the 
door  of  the  loving  God  of  Redemption.  But  while 
Hinduism  robs  salvation  of  all  worth,  what  evidence  is 
there  that  it  will  bring  its  theory  or  can  bring  its  theory 
into  realization  ?  Is  it  anything  more  than  a  dream  ? 
Hinduism  provides  theoretically  for  stupendous  results 
in  merging  the  many  into  the  one,  but  what  is  it  more 
than  a  theory  ?  Hinduism  providing  for  the  final  sal- 
vation of  all  men  is  like  a  child  offering  to  its  playmates 
the  treasures  of  the  moon.  God  only  can  give  salvation, 
and  we  believe  that  in  His  revealed  Word  He  has  set 


144  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

forth  its  conditions.  Neither  Hindu  theorists  nor 
Christian  theologians  can  determine  the  issues  of  the 
future.  We  may  echo  what  God  says,  but  our  specula- 
tions about  the  mysteries  of  eternity  are  not  of  com- 
manding and  vital  moment." 

A  few  years  ago  a  wide  discussion  occurred  in  the 
Presbyterian  Churches  of  America  over  a  revision  of 
the  Confession  of  Faith.  One  of  the  articles  giving 
offence  was  that  which  stated  that  elect  infants,  dying 
in  infancy,  are  saved,  the  implication  being,  as  many 
thought,  that  non-elect  infants  were  lost.  The  reformers 
desired  a  plain  statement  of  wThat  is  the  universal  faith 
— namely,  that  all  infants  are  immediately  saved.  This 
matter  was  under  discussion  by  the  Preslyytery  of 
Chicago,  and  a  vote  favoring  revision  was,  at  last,  carried. 
Thereupon  a  reporter  for  one  of  the  Chicago  journals, 
who  had  evidently  been  trained  in  the  theory  that  the 
Councils  of  the  Church  have  an  active  influence,  and, 
possibly  a  retroactive  influence,  on  the  decisions  of  the 
Almighty,  came  to  me  and  said,  very  earnestly  and  sin- 
cerely :  "  Now  that  your  Presbytery  has  decided  that 
all  infants  are  to  be  saved,  I  would  like  to  put  to 
you  this  question,  What  becomes  of  those  infants  wrho 
died  before  this  action  of  the  Presbytery  was  taken  ?  " 
I  have  a  strong  impression  that  neither  the  Chicago 
Presbytery  nor  Hindu  theorists  determine  the  future 
lot  of  other  people.  I  have  a  strong  feeling  that  the 
assertions  of  my  Hindu  friends  in  regard  to  the  univer- 
sal salvation  of  men  are  of  little  consequence  in  the 
world  of  religion  to-day.  It  may  be  characteristic  of 
Hinduism  and  of  some  forms  of  Christianity  to  pay  but 
meagre  attention  to  the  life  that  now  is,  to  the  present 
sins  and  sufferings  of  struggling  humanity,  and  to  dream 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  145 

and  to  speculate  and  to  theorize  about  a  remote,  a  celes- 
tial future  ;  but  I  believe  that  the  real  value  of  religions 
is  determined  not  so  much  along  the  lines  of  inquiry 
that  we  are  now  pursuing,  although  even  here  Chris- 
tianity infinitely  transcends  Hinduism,  but  along  other 
lines  of  investigation.  If  you  wish  to  test  your  Hindu- 
ism in  comparison  with  Christianity,  you  may  ask,  as  I 
said  of  Mohammedanism,  what  are  the  fundamental  and 
spiritual  ideas  of  each  faith ;  its  incomplete  and  ignoble 
teachings,  if  there  be  such;  the  spiritual  dynamics  of 
each,  through  which  its  ideals  become  realized ;  the  best 
effects  that  each  can  show ;  and  what  I  may  call  the 
average  results,  its  working  through  long  ages  on  great 
masses  of  people — in  other  words,  its  vital  relations  to 
civilization,  enlightenment,  liberty,  and  progress.  Chris- 
tianity proves  its  value  by  saving  men  here  and  now, 
not  postponing  its  effects  until  another  life.  This  power 
Hinduism  not  only  does  not  possess,  but  in  India  does 
not  claim  to  possess.  Hindu  lecturers  are  not  endeav- 
oring to  win  converts  to  Hinduism  among  the  Ameri- 
cans and  Europeans  who  are  living  in  India.  It  is 
from  among  deluded  Europeans  and  Americans  who 
have  never  seen  India  that  a  few  Hindu  teachers  are 
trying  to  make  converts. 

Judged  by  its  power  to  save  men  from  sin  in  this  life, 
the  terrible  failure  of  Hinduism  is  blazingly  apparent. 
I  know  the  sins  of  Christendom,  and  I  would  that 
Christendom  were  far  better ;  but,  compared  with  the 
non-Christian  world  as  spread  out  in  the  Indian  penin- 
sula, it  appears  to  me  as  noonday  to  midnight.  After 
what  I  have  seen,  I  am  almost  persuaded  that  within 
the  area  of  a  thousand  square  miles  of  America  there 

is  more  of   uprightness,  moral   purity,  and   true    self- 
10 


146  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

respecting  manhood  and  womanhood  than  can  be  found 
in  all  Asia,  leaving  out  the  better  elements  that  have 
come  from  Christendom.  The  notion  that  Asia  does 
not  need  the  Gospel  of  Christ  because  there  are  fine 
and  lofty  sentiments  in  the  Boohs  of  the  East,  or  because 
Oriental  speakers,  trained  in  Christian  schools  and 
shaped  by  Christian  environments,  are  able  to  make  an 
agreeable  impression,  expounding  their  faiths  on  Ameri- 
can platforms,  is  born  of  ignorance.  The  famous  apos- 
tle of  Hinduism  to  America,  who,  according  to  recent 
reports,  is  doing  very  much  to  break  down  Hinduism  in 
India,  and  who  has  been  driven  from  a  Hindu  temple 
because  he  had  polluted  it  by  his  presence,  a  man  of 
great  eloquence  and  plausibility,  was  graduated  from  a 
Presbyterian  college  in  Calcutta,  and  infuses  into  his 
so-called  Hinduism  many  of  the  truths  and  sentiments 
of  the  Christian  Gospel. 

Let  me  say,  in  closing,  that  I  do  not  anticipate  the  re- 
generation of  India  as  the  result  of  native  reform  move- 
ments, founded  on  a  comprehensive  eclecticism,  even 
movements  of  the  high  ethical  quality  of  the  Brahmo 
Somaj,  represented  in  this  country  by  Mr.  Mozoomdar. 
That  movement,  overvaluing  the  intellectual  history  of 
India,  naturally  strives  to  offend  and  oppose  the  na- 
tional spirit  as  little  as  possible.  I  thank  God  for  all 
its  great  work  of  enlightening  and  disprovincializing 
India,  but  as  a  separate  movement  it  appears  to  be 
hopelessly  inadequate.  It  is  not  so  strong  as  it  was 
twenty  years  ago.  It  numbers  at  most  but  a  few  thou- 
sands out  of  three  hundred  millions.  It  is  breaking  into 
infinitesimal  fragments,  and  Mr.  Mozoomdar  moans  that 
it  appears  to  be  on  the  point  of  dissolution.  It  seems 
unable  to  cope  with  the  present  rising  tide  of  Hinduism 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  147 

— one  of  those  periodic  waves  of  revival  which  the  dying 
system  throws  upon  the  shore.  It  lacks  courage,  and 
its  greatest  leader  is  one  of  the  saddest  as  well  as 
sweetest  of  men.  He  is  almost  cast  out  in  Calcutta  by 
those  who  should  have  gathered  around  him.  He  has 
spirituality  enough  to  be  a  Hindu  Thomas  a  Kernpis, 
but  his  people  will  not  follow  him  toward  Christ.  Noble 
theistic  ideas  are  not  adequate,  unless  they  are  in  accord 
with  Christian  theism,  God  in  Christ.  Eclecticism  is 
not  life  and  power.  Men  need,  in  order  to  integrate 
all  truths  into  a  living  oneness,  the  personal  Christ, 
the  ever-living  Son  of  God  and  Son  of  man.  When  I 
learned  that  one  of  the  Brahmo  leaders  gave  up  an 
evening  to  a  lecture  on  the  moral  imperfections  of 
Jesus,  I  felt  that  this  movement  was  doomed.  I  am 
more  convinced  than  ever  that  the  message  which  the 
missionary  or  Christian  lecturer  carries  to  India  and 
the  Farther  East  should  be  the  distinctively  Gospel  mes- 
sage. It  ought  not  to  lack  those  elements  of  positiveness 
which  have  always  been  the  chief  strength  of  Christian 
testimony.  It  should  centre  in  Him,  the  historic  Christ, 
who  sums  up  all  that  is  most  blessed  and  most  distinc- 
tive in  our  faith.  It  should  build  on  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  foundations  already  laid  in  non-Christian  lands, 
and  not  disturb  those  foundations.  It  should  seek  to 
better  the  edifice,  but  not  to  upturn  or  shatter  the  basis 
of  truth  which  all  the  churches  have  united  in  planting. 
The  messenger  who  goes  to  Asia  to  emphasize  some- 
thing else  than  the  divine  and  ever-living  Christ,  who 
goes  there  to  air  his  doubts  or  speak  with  uncertain 
sound  before  men  who  are  already  bothered  with  an  ex- 
cess of  uncertainties,  would  better  have  stayed  at  home. 
This  may  be  true  also  of  those  who  emphasize  minor 


148  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

dogmas  which  do  not  belong  to  the  catholic  creed,  those 
who  magnify  non-essentials  while  confronting  a  pagan- 
ism whose  superstitions  and  horrors  ought  to  melt  the 
church  into  unity  ;  and  I  would  say  the  same  thing  of 
those  who  are  the  bond-servants  of  a  Christian  ecclesi- 
asticism  which  at  some  points  is  as  mechanical  in  its 
method  of  salvation  as  Hinduism  itself.  The  evangel- 
ization of  India  can  be  achieved  only  by  proclaiming  the 
living  Christ,  and  by  an  exemplification  in  brotherliness 
and  righteousness  of  apostolic  Christianity.  Preach- 
ing the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the 
truth,  and  preaching  it  in  that  love  which  is  wise  in  dis- 
tinguishing things  that  are  great  and  essential  from 
those  that  are  trivial  and  secondary,  the  church  will 
magnify  the  power  of  its  testimony. 

I  have  come  to  feel  more  strongly  than  ever  that  no 
limp  type  of  Christianity  can  grapple  successfully  with 
such  spiritual  and  moral  problems  as  confront  us  in 
Asia.  No  mechanical  ecclesiasticism,  playing  with 
lighted  candles  and  clinging  to  exploded  dogmas  of  ex- 
clusive churchly  authority,  can  regenerate  India.  The 
Christianity  needed  must  be  wise  and  patient  and  sym- 
pathetic ;  hospitable  to  all  truth,  and  friendly  to  all 
goodness;  and,  first  of  all,  it  must  have  in  it  the  life-blood 
of  the  old  evangel  which  Paul  carried  to  Rome  and  the 
Puritans  brought  to  America.  It  must  be  able  to  pro- 
duce Christians  who  have  nerve  and  fibre  to  make  sacri- 
fices, to  endure  hardships ;  and  who,  casting  aside  any 
vain  hopes  of  doing  for  Asia  in  a  decade  what  sixteen 
centuries  of  European  civilization  have  scarcely  accom- 
plished, are  determined  to  keep  at  it  till  the  work  is  done. 
This  world  of  ours  needs  Christ — the  whole  Christ ;  not 
a  partial  Christ ;  not  a  Saviour  who  has  no  almighty 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  HINDU  MIND  149 

power  to  save  ;  not  a  Teacher  overcome  by  human  fail- 
ings, and  Himself  conquered  by  death ;  but  the  Christ 
of  the  Gospels — the  one  unique  feature  and  element  of 
Christianity  ;  the  Christ  of  the  Throne  and  the  Cradle  ; 
the  Christ  of  the  Cross  and  the  broken  Sepulchre  ;  the 
loving,  suffering,  atoning,  risen,  and  ever-living  Son  of 
God,  marching  at  the  head  of  Christendom  and  of  his- 
tory, travailing  in  the  greatness  of  His  omnipotent 
redeeming  affection;  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever. 


CHAPTEE  VI 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM 

India  has  been  the  theatre,  as  well  as  the  cradle,  of 
other  religions  besides  that  strange  amalgam  which  we 
call  Hinduism.  India  is  now  ruled  by  a  Christian  sov- 
ereign. She  was  once  ruled  by  Mohammedan  emperors  ; 
and,  long  before  the  times  of  the  Moguls,  Buddhist 
kings  held  sway  over  her  broad  domain.  I  find  that 
some  people  among  us  have  not  clearly  distinguished 
between  Buddhism  and  the  Hinduism  out  of  which  it 
sprang.  Buddhism  to-day  is  practically  non-existent  in 
India,  although  predominant  in  Ceylon  and  in  Burma. 
The  Buddhist  and  the  Hindu  of  to-day,  while  thev 
have  much  in  common,  are  apt  to  hold  opposing  opinions 
in  regard  to  the  divine  personality.  While  the  Hindu 
boasts  his  doctrine  of  God,  the  agnostic  Buddhist  ex- 
ploits his  doctrine  of  man.  During  the  sessions  of  the 
Parliament  of  Religions,  even  the  omniscient  newspapers 
were  all  the  while  confusing  the  faiths  of  the  world. 
While  that  meeting  was  in  progress,  a  Jew  from  the 
City  of  New  York,  who  for  years  had  been  a  member  of 
the  Committee  of  the  Maha  Bodhi  Gaya  Society,  which 
has  for  its  object  the  purchase  by  the  Buddhist  world  of 
the  temple  of  Gaya,  where  Gautama  received  his  en- 
lightenment, came  to  Chicago,  and  in  a  little  company 
of  Theosophists  was  received  by  Mr.  Dharmapala  into 
membership  in  the  Buddhist  community  on  the  promise 

150 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  151 

of  avoiding  fleshly  sins  and  leading  a  pure  life.  Imagine 
the  astonishment  of  Mr.  Mozoomdar,  of  the  Brahmo 
Somaj,  the  society  of  the  worshippers  of  God,  as  he 
read  in  the  papers  the  next  morning  that  he,  Mozoom- 
dar, had  received  the  night  before  a  new  convert  to  his 
faith !  The  distinctive  feature  of  Mr.  Mozoomdar's  doc- 
trine is  his  recognition  of  the  spirit  of  a  personal  God 
in  all  life,  in  all  religions,  in  all  nations.  A  distinctive 
feature  of  most  Buddhist  philosophers  of  to-day,  as  of 
their  master  at  the  beginning,  is  agnosticism  with  re- 
gard to  a  personal  deity.  After  the  closing  session  of 
the  Parliament  of  B-eligions,  when  all  hearts  were  lifted 
and  inspired  as  probably  never  before  in  their  lives,  I 
was  driven  home  in  the  carriage  with  Mr.  Mozoomdar 
and  Mr.  Dharmapala  ;  and  Mozoomdar,  all  aglow  with  re- 
ligious emotion,  said  to  his  Buddhist  friend  :  "  Didn't 
you  feel,  didn't  you  realize  in  your  own  soul  to-night 
the  presence  and  the  power  of  God  ?  "  And  Dharma- 
pala answered  the  inquiry  with  the  Avords  :  "Why  not 
be  satisfied  with  one's  happy  feelings  without  trying  to 
settle  where  they  came  from  ?  " 

A  list  of  the  popular  mistakes  and  journalistic  errors 
in  regard  to  the  fundamental  facts  and  basal  character- 
istics of  the  world-leading  faiths  would  make  it  plain 
that  America  needs  elemental  and  reiterated  teaching 
on  these  important  themes.  I  have  heard  the  question  : 
"  Is  not  Mohammedanism  the  oldest  of  the  world's 
faiths?"  and  also  the  inquiry:  "Which  are  the  more 
numerous,  the  Mohammedans  or  the  Buddhists,  in 
India  ?  "  And  a  leading  journal  of  America  described 
the  platform  of  the  Parliament  as  a  place  where  Chris- 
tian divines  sat  side  by  side  with  learned  Hindu  Pun- 
jabs  !     Buddhism  is  now  a  stranger  in  the  land  of  its 


152  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

birth  ;  and  although  it  had  a  long  and  useful  history  in 
India,  the  Brahinans  succeeded  finally  in  driving  out 
the  followers  of  the  gentle  sage  and  saint,  the  greatest 
and  holiest  man  that  ancient  India  ever  gave  to  the 
world.  Buddha  was  retained  as  the  ninth  incarnation 
of  Vishnu  ;  but  the  old  gods  whom  Gautama  ignored 
were  not  only  restored  to  their  former  places  in  the 
Hindu  mind,  but  came  back  in  time  even  to  the  popular 
faith  of  the  Buddhists  themselves. 

This  evening,  after  halting  a  few  minutes  in  Ceylon, 
we  pass  from  the  East,  which  to  the  Englishman  is 
India,  to  the  even  more  important  Far  East,  which  in- 
cludes China  and  Japan.  The  mission  which  carried 
me  to  the  one  sent  me  also  to  the  other ;  and  although  I 
only  skirted  the  great  world  of  China,  touching  for 
thirty-six  hours  at  Saigon,  for  twenty  hours  at  Hong- 
kong, England's  chief  port  in  the  Pacific,  and  twenty 
hours  at  Shanghai,  one  of  the  main  centres  of  eastern 
trade,  I  had  nineteen  days  in  Japan,  where  my  time,  as 
in  India,  was  given  not  only  to  public  speaking,  but 
also  to  the  study  of  most  interesting  problems.  I  have 
been  accustomed  to  think  of  India  as  a  great  banyan- 
tree,  spreading  out  dark,  wide,  and  gloomy,  with  many 
of  its  trunks  decayed,  a  resting-place  of  unclean  birds, 
and  sombre  with  clouds  that  cover  both  the  zenith  and 
the  horizon ;  but  Japan  is  a  wild-cherry  blossom, 
gleaming  in  the  morning  light  of  Western  civilization. 
Japan  represents  the  present  and  the  future,  and  her 
brave,  intelligent  people  abound  with  national  hope  and 
self-confidence.  India  represents  the  past ;  and  she 
moans  with  petulant  melancholy  over  the  splendors, 
fabulous  or  real,  of  a  remote  antiquity.  Between  India 
and  Japan  lies  the  hugest  of  nationalities,  greatest  and 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  153 

most  populous  of  all  the  world-empires,  enslaved, 
dwarfed,  and  brutalized,  but  still  the  most  potential, 
unused  factor  in  the  problem  of  the  world's  industrial 
and  religious  future. 

Ceylon  was  to  us  the  halting-place  and  stepping-stone 
in  our  voyage  from  the  East  to  the  Far  East ;  and  in  the 
long  journeys  from  Colombo  to  Yokohama  we  skirted 
not  only  the  continent  of  Asia,  but  also  the  world  of 
Buddhism,  a  system  multiplex  as  Hinduism  itself,  which 
rules,  or  at  least  prevails,  in  Ceylon,  in  British  Burma, 
in  Java,  in  Si  am  and  An  am,  in  Nepaul,  in  Thibet,  Ko- 
rea, and  Japan,  in  the  Island  of  Formosa,  over  which 
now  floats  the  white  and  sun-bearing  Japanese  flag,  and 
throughout  all  China,  where  it  is  mingled  with  Confu- 
cianism and  Taoism.  Of  all  the  personal  religions, 
Buddhism  has  thus  far  touched  the  greatest  number  of 
human  souls ;  although  Buddhism  has  not  the  world- 
wide aspects  and  has  not  produced  the  world-wide  effects 
of  Christianity.  Gautama  was  not  only  a  teacher,  but 
a  propagandist ;  and  his  strength  as  a  missionary  came 
not  only  from  his  order  of  preaching  mendicant  monks, 
to  which  multitudes  attached  themselves  as  lay  brethren 
in  order  to  attain  Nirvana,  but  also  from  the  attractive- 
ness of  his  teaching  of  universal  brotherhood,  and,  like 
Luther  and  John  Knox,  he  preached  to  the  people  in 
their  own  language. 

Gautama's  system  presents  almost  as  great  a  variety 
of  forms  as  Hinduism.  It  is  sometimes  atheistic,  and 
then  polytheistic ;  now  philanthropic,  now  philosophic ; 
now  monastic,  now  even  demonic,  and  allied  to  witch- 
craft and  necromancy.  It  is  well  known  that  Buddhism 
in  Japan  captured  and  made  use  of  Shinto,  or  the  prim- 
itive national  religion,  for  its  own  purposes ;  just  as  it 


154  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

stands  ready  today,  according  to  one  writer,  "  to  absorb 
Christianity  by  making  Jesus  one  of  the  Palestinian 
avatars  of  the  Buddha."  Original  Buddhism — whose 
way  of  salvation  has  been  called  the  little  vessel  or  little 
vehicle  "Hinayana,"  whereby,  on  account  of  its  philo- 
sophic character,  only  a  small  number  may  cross  the 
river  of  earthliness  to  reach  the  calm  and  passionless 
shores  of  Nirvana — has  been  succeeded  or  supplemented 
with  a  larger  vessel  or  vehicle  of  salvation,  the  "  Maha- 
yana,"  the  "  Great  Eastern"  or  "  Campania  "  of  Buddhist 
thought,  in  which  the  multitudes  may  find  safe,  if  not 
comfortable,  quarters  in  their  passage  over  a  stormy  sea 
toward  the  same  quiet  harbor.  "We  must  not  expect  to 
find  any  uniformity  in  the  teachings  of  Buddhists,  for 
northern  Buddhism  has  broken  away  from  the  original 
doctrine  of  Buddha  in  regard  to  Nirvana,  "  and  glided 
into  a  belief  in  immortality  and  in  a  heaven  so  sensuous 
that  it  is  hard  to  understand  how  its  disciples  can  con- 
sistently call  themselves  Buddhists."  It  may  be  said 
that  the  Buddhism  of  the  Shamans  in  the  steppes  of 
Tartary  is  as  different  from  the  original  doctrine  as  the 
Christianity  of  the  Abyssinians  is  from  the  teaching  of 
Christ.  This  system  has  absorbed  the  superstitions  of 
the  lands  where  it  now  prevails,  and  has  even  become 
a  partner  with  devil-worship  in  Burma.  There  are  at 
least  a  dozen  sects  of  Buddhists  in  Japan,  some  of 
which  certainly  teach  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  faith. 
And  Albert  Beville  has  said  of  Buddhism  in  China  that 
"it  looks  on  first  view  like  a  simple  modification  of 
Taoism,  which  was  its  precursor  and  propagator.  Its 
doctrine,  which  was  not  Taoism,  but  resembled  it,  and 
responded  to  the  same  needs  in  a  more  complete,  mys- 
terious, and  imposing  way,  found  a  platform  prepared 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  155 

for  it  in  many  souls."  (Albert  Reville,  "  La  Religion 
Chinoise,"  p.  104.)  This  gives  us  the  explanation  of 
the  fact  that  Buddhism  is  the  only  doctrine  of  foreign 
origin  which  ever  made  notable  progress  in  the  Celestial 
Empire.  And  Professor  Rhys  Davids  has  written : 
"  Not  one  of  the  five  hundred  millions  who  offer  flowers 
now  and  then  on  Buddhist  shrines,  who  are  more  or 
less  moulded  by  Buddhist  teaching,  is  only  or  altogether 
a  Buddhist."  And  he  adds  that  "  to  trace  all  the  devel- 
opments of  Buddhism,  from  its  rise  in  India  in  the  fifth 
century  B.C.,  through  its  various  fortunes  there,  and  its 
progress  in  the  countries  to  which  it  spread  down  to 
the  present  time,  would  be  to  write  the  history  of  nearly 
half  of  the  human  race  during  the  greater  part  of  that 
period  within  which  anything  worthy  the  name  of  his- 
tory is  possible  at  all."     (Rhys  Davids,  "  Buddhism," 

p.  a.) 

Since  my  return  to  America  I  have  received  an  in- 
vitation to  deliver  an  address,  giving  my  "  personal  ob- 
servations of  the  effects  of  Buddhism  on  the  women  of 
India !  "  Replying  to  this  note,  I  said,  among  other 
things,  that  only  a  few  hundred  Buddhists  were  left  in 
India.  We  must  go  outside  of  that  land  to  study  nine- 
teenth century  Buddhism.  I  met  a  few  priests  in  Cal- 
cutta ;  and  at  Darjeeling  I  saw  a  Thibetan  Buddhist, 
who  was  also  a  worshipper  of  the  Hindu  gods,  bowing 
at  a  little  shrine  on  Observatory  Hill,  in  sight  of  the 
sublimest  mountains  of  the  world.  The  usual  forms  of 
Hindu  idolatry  were  observed ;  and  on  trees  about  the 
altar  were  ten  thousand  paper  prayers  dangling  from 
strings,  and  designed  to  keep  off  the  demons.  In  the 
bazaars  of  Darjeeling  we  bought  a  Buddhist  prayer- 
wheel,  but  not  till  wo  reached  Ceylon  did  we  meet  any 


156  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

great  numbers  of  the  Buddhist  faith.  The  system  of 
Gautama  is  dominant  where  the  spicy  breezes  blow  soft 
o'er  Ceylon's  isle.  In  Colombo  we  had  the  pleasure  of 
a  reception  at  the  spacious  and  hospitable  home  of  Don 
Carolis,  father  of  Mr.  Dharmapala,  the  Buddhist  speaker 
who  has  been  twice  in  America ;  and  we  found  the  family 
still  grateful  over  the  kindnesses  which  the  son  had  re- 
ceived in  this  country.  I  was  also  honored  with  a  call 
from  the  high  priest  of  Buddhism  in  Ceylon,  Samangala, 
a  world-famous  scholar,  seventy  years  of  age,  teacher  of 
Sanskrit  and  Pali  in  the  Buddhist  college,  and  an  eccle- 
siastic who  lives  on  friendly  terms  with  the  English 
bishop  of  Colombo,  and  with  many  of  our  chief  mission- 
aries. When  I  presented  this  courteous  and  yellow- 
robed  priest  to  Mrs.  Barrows,  he  turned  away  and  said 
to  his  secretary  :  "  Please  tell  them  that  I  am  not  per- 
mitted to  speak  to  a  woman." 

The  Island  of  Ceylon  has  been  twice  forcibly  con- 
verted to  Christianity,  once  by  the  Portuguese  and  then 
by  the  Dutch ;  but  this  rapid,  mechanical,  military  proc- 
ess, while  it  ecclesiasticized  the  people  in  a  superficial 
way,  did  not  win  their  hearts  from  the  ancestral  faith, 
and  did  not  represent  the  true  spirit  of  Christianity, 
which  is  now  making  slower,  more  important,  and  more 
permanent  conquests.  Of  the  three  million  people  in 
Ceylon,  the  Buddhists  represent  sixty-two  per  cent., 
the  Hindus  twenty-seven  per  cent.,  the  Mohammedans 
seven  per  cent.,  and  the  Christians  more  than  ten  per 
cent.  One  is  struck  after  a  few  hours  in  Ceylon  by  the 
superiority  of  the  civilization  which  Buddhism  has  cre- 
ated over  that  of  Hinduism.  You  feel  at  once  that  the 
conditions  of  life  are  relatively  better.  Whatever  may 
be  said  in  criticism  of  the  effects  of  Buddhism  in  China, 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  157 

Japan,  and  elsewhere,  I  must  give  it  the  credit  of  saying 
that  it  has  not  plunged  a  people  into  quite  such  depths 
of  misery  and  despair  as  has  the  ancient  Hinduism. 
There  are  no  tones  of  triumph  and  hope  sounded  by  the 
Buddhist  faith,  I  well  know — nearly  all  its  chords  are 
minor,  but  something  of  its  ethical  humanity  lingers 
here  and  there ;  and  if  it  has  not  lifted  nations  out  of 
animalism,  it  has  not  plunged  them  into  such  abysses  of 
hopeless  and  universal  misery. 

In  Wesley  College,  Colombo,  I  had  my  first  oppor- 
tunity of  addressing  a  large  number  of  Buddhists  on  the 
claims  of  Christianity ;  and  while  in  Kandy  I  entered  my 
first  Buddhist  temple,  the  famous  shrine  containing  the 
sacred  tooth  of  Gautama — a  relic  not  one  whit  more  im- 
possible than  many  similar  frauds  exhibited  in  Chris- 
tian cathedrals  of  Europe.  This  tooth — a  piece  of  ivory 
two  inches  long,  and  not  quite  an  inch  wide — may  have 
belonged  to  a  crocodile ;  and  when  I  spoke  of  its  extraor- 
dinary size  to  the  attendant,  he  informed  me  that  the 
books  of  their  religion  told  them  that  Gautama  Buddha 
was  eighteen  feet  in  height !  Kandy,  more  than  two 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  is  perhaps  the  loveliest 
spot  that  human  eyes  ever  looked  upon.  The  placid 
lake,  the  flower-covered  hill-sides,  the  gentle  mountains, 
the  wonderful  luxuriance  of  nature !  Who  can  forget 
the  ever-pleasing  prospects  of  the  region  which  tradition 
claims  to  have  been  the  scriptural  paradise  ?  The  force 
of  nature  here  exhibited  in  the  vegetable  world  sur- 
passes anything  elsewhere  to  be  found.  In  the  world- 
famous  gardens  one  may  look  upon  two  hundred  varie- 
ties of  the  palm-tree,  at  all  the  more  noteworthy 
products  of  tropical  lands,  and  may  gaze  with  astonish- 
ment and  almost  terror  at  the  gigantic  sheafs  of  Malacca 


158  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

bamboos,  each  a  tree  in  itself — a  cluster  a  hundred  feet 
in  circumference,  shooting  into  the  air  like  a  botanical 
geyser,  one  hundred  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet, 
indicating  on  the  part  of  nature  a  vigor,  a  violence — I 
almost  feel  like  saying,  a  venomousness — of  life  which  I 
have  not  seen  paralleled  elsewhere.  What  the  Himalaya 
Mountains  do  to  impress  the  mind  with  the  power  of 
the  Creator,  is  accomplished  by  these  vegetable  won- 
ders of  Ceylon,  in  astonishing  the  mind  by  the  active 
presence  of  creative  life.  Man's  feebleness  and  help- 
lessness in  the  presence  of  such  a  wondrous  vitality  may 
have  had  a  permanent  influence  over  religious  thought. 
Nature  is  prodigious,  prolific,  all-powerful.  The  ever- 
beating  sea,  the  drenching  storms,  the  unparalleled 
fecundity  of  the  soil — what  is  man  after  all,  but  a  play 
thing  in  the  midst  of  scenes  and  forces  like  these  ?  But 
there  is  a  friendliness  apparent  in  much  that  Nature 
does  in  tropic  seas  quite  in  contrast  with  the  apparent 
hostility  of  northern  cold  and  the  forces  which,  while 
they  fight  human  comfort,  call  forth  the  active  energies 
of  the  hardy  races  of  men.  The  presence  in  Ceylon  of 
men  of  northern  energy  has  humanized  and  civilized  the 
tropic  wildness  of  the  island,  and  so  the  moral  forces  of 
Christianity  will  yet  energize  the  Singhalese  and  Tamil 
races  which  make  the  bulk  of  that  population.  One 
morning,  waking  from  sleep  in  Kandy,  I  heard  the 
monotonous  beating  of  drums  at  the  neighboring  tem- 
ple, calling  the  early  worshippers  to  prayer  in  a  service 
which  recognizes  no  God.  The  music,  so  strange,  and 
weird,  and  sensational,  stirred  my  heart  with  a  feeling 
of  profound  pity ;  and  yet  it  sent  my  imagination  off  in 
a  wide  flight  over  many  Eastern  lands.  I  heard  in  it  the 
echoes  of  plaintive  voices  that  have  sounded  over  the 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  159 

Indian  plains  down  many  weary  and  woful  centuries ; 
and  I  knew  that  such  music,  monotonous  and  mechani- 
cal, but  far  from  meaningless,  then  stirred  hundreds  of 
millions  of  hearts  in  that  far  Eastern  world  to  which  my 
steps  were  soon  to  be  tending. 

This  evening  we  shall  endeavor  to  bring  into  compar- 
ison Buddhism  and  Christianity.  Most  of  us  are  aware 
that  these  religions  are  independent  in  their  origin. 
Scholarship  asserts  that  there  is  no  evidence  that  the 
evangelists  borrowed  anything  from  Buddhism,  or  knew 
anything  about  it.  Professor  Rhys  Davids  finds  no 
proof  of  any  actual  and  direct  communication  of  any  of 
the  ideas  common  to  Buddhism  and  Christianity  from 
the  East  to  the  West.  Professor  Kuenen  expresses  the 
general  scholarly  conclusion  in  saying  that  "we  must 
abstain  from  assigning  to  Buddhism  the  smallest  direct 
influence  on  the  origin  of  Christianity."  We  have  lives 
of  Christ,  we  have  four  biographies  of  Jesus ;  and  the 
ablest  scholars  are  generally  agreed  in  assigning  at  least 
the  first  three,  or  synoptic,  Gospels  to  the  first  century 
of  oar  era.  The  life  of  Buddha  which  modern  scholar- 
ship has  been  able  to  extract  from  the  legendary  extrav- 
agances gathered  about  the  Indian  sage  is  meagre,  and 
rich  with  uncertainties.  The  traditions  current  in  the 
northern  and  southern  Buddhist  churches  contradict 
each  other.  But  even  if  we  select  onty  those  in  which 
they  are  agreed,  and  which  were  adopted  as  canonical 
by  the  Council  of  Patna,  about  240  B.C.,  as  the  basis  of 
his  life,  the  facts  are  comparatively  few — marvellously 
so  when  compared  with  the  abundance  of  our  trustwor- 
thy information  regarding  the  life  of  Him  who  was  not 
merely  the  Light  of  Asia,  but  the  Light  of  the  World. 
For  hundreds  of  years  after  Buddha's  death  nothing 


160  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

was  written  down ;  all  was  transmitted  by  word  of  mouth. 
It  has  been  said  of  the  "  Lalita  Yistara  " — the  standard 
Sanscrit  work  of  the  northern  Buddhists  on  the  life  of 
their  master,  or  rather  the  early  life  of  Gautama  down  to 
the  time  when  he  began  his  public  teaching — that  this 
extravagant  fiction,  or  these  wild  fantasies,  as  Oldenberg 
calls  them,  so  far  as  real  proof  can  be  found,  did  not  ex- 
ist in  the  present  form  before  the  year  600  of  our  era. 
Even  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  Apocryphal  Gos- 
pels, with  all  their  fantastic  extravagances,  can  hardly 
imagine,  if  they  have  not  read  them,  how  grotesque  the 
oriental  mind  has  been  in  weaving  its  fictions  about  the 
birth  and  temptations  and  achievements  of  Buddha. 
Some  of  these  have  been  deftly  woven  by  Sir  Edwin 
Arnold  into  his  popular  poem,  which  is  about  as  trust- 
worthy as  a  life  of  Gautama,  it  has  been  said,  "  as  would 
be  a  history  of  our  Lord  that  was  compiled  indiscrim- 
inately from  the  New  Testament,  the  Apocryphal  Gos- 
pels, and  the  myths  of  the  Middle  Ages."  (T.  Sterling 
Berry,  "  Christianity  and  Buddhism,"  p.  29.) 

"  The  Birth  Stories  of  Ceylon  "  represent  him  as  hav- 
ing been  born  five  hundred  and  thirty  times  after  he 
became  a  predestined  Buddha.  We  read  that  he  was 
born  eighty-three  times  as  an  ascetic,  forty-eight  times 
as  a  monarch,  forty-three  times  as  a  Deva,  twenty-four 
as  a  Brahman,  eighteen  as  an  ape  ;  as  a  deer,  ten ;  an 
elephant,  six ;  a  lion,  ten  ;  at  least  once  each  as  a  thief, 
gambler,  a  frog,  a  hare,  and  a  snipe.  He  was  also  em- 
bodied in  a  tree.  But,  as  a  predestined  Buddha,  he 
could  not  be  born  in  hell,  nor  as  vermin,  nor  as  a 
woman.  Spence  Hardy  has  said  :  "  He  could  descend 
no  lower  than  a  snipe  !  "  The  northern  legends  of  his 
births   are  far  more   fantastic   than    anything  in   the 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  161 

Apocryphal  Gospels.  And  at  the  time  of  his  tempta- 
tion under  the  Bo-tree,  according  to  the  Northern  Script- 
ures, Satan  came  to  him  mounted  on  an  elephant  six- 
teen miles  high,  and  surrounded  by  an  encircling  army 
of  demons  twelve  miles  deep.  "  The  later  Singhalese 
books  make  him  do  wonders  with  a  bow  which  one 
thousand  men  could  not  bend,  and  the  twang  of  whose 
string  was  heard  for  seven  thousand  miles  ;  and  they 
say  :  '  The  prince  also  proved  that  he  knew  perfectly 
the  eighteen  arts,  though  he  never  had  a  teacher,  and 
he  was  equally  well  acquainted  with  many  other  sci- 
ences.' "     (Rhys  Davids,  "  Buddhism,"  p.  14.) 

The  date  that  used  to  be  accepted  for  Buddha's  death 
is  543  B.C.,  but  Rhys  Davids  makes  it  nearly  a  century 
later ;  while  Sir  Monier-Williams  puts  the  year  of  his 
birth  at  about  500,  which  would  bring  the  year  of  his 
death  down  to  420.  But,  since  the  Hindu  mind  has  no 
idea  of  chronology,  and  since  we  have  nothing  like  con- 
temporary or  nearly  contemporary  accounts  of  his  story, 
we  need  not  be  surprised  at  this.  We  certainly  must  re- 
'ject  the  theory  which  has  been  learnedly  advanced  that  he 
was  only  a  myth.  Furthermore,  we  ought  to  remember 
that,  whereas  Christ  Himself  and  His  history  are  the 
substance  of  the  Gospel  record,  it  is  quite  otherwise 
with  Buddha.  "  There  are  only  fragmentary  notices  of 
his  personal  story."  The  only  exception  which  de- 
serves to  be  made  is  this,  that  Buddha's  words  and  deeds 
in  the  last  days  of  his  life  are  minutely  and  lovingly  re- 
corded. And,  later  in  the  lecture,  I  shall  give  you  an 
account  of  his  death,  as  described  in  the  "  Book  of  the 
Great  Decease,"  where  we  tread  on  fairly  substantial 
historic  ground. 

I  shall  now  try  to  tell  you  the  main  facts  in  the  life 
11 


162  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

of  this  most  illustrious  son  of  India,  remarking,  however, 
that  in  comparing  the  legends  which  gathered  about 
Buddha  with  the  authentic  and  historic  accounts  of 
Christ,  we  see  mainly  divergencies;  and  when  "we  are 
confronted  with  the  statement  that  in  the  Gospel  his- 
tory, as  it  has  been  handed  down  to  us,  legend  has  pre- 
vailed over  fact,  it  is  important  to  be  able  to  point  to  a 
case  in  which  such  a  process  actually  occurred ;  for  it 
is  by  a  comparison  of  this  kind  that  we  can  most  plainly 
see  how  untenable  the  mythical  theory  becomes  as  an 
explanation  of  the  records  of  the  New  Testament." 
(Berry,  "Christianity  and  Buddhism,"  p.  51.) 

Probably  some  time  in  the  sixth  century  before  the 
shepherds  were  rejoicing  in  Bethlehem  over  the  new- 
born King  of  the  Jews,  there  was  born  in  India, 
more  than  a  hundred  miles  from  sacred  Benares,  in  the 
town  of  Kapilavastu,  a  son  who  rejoiced  the  heart 
of  the  Rajah  who  was  his  father  and  of  the  mother 
Maia,  beautiful  as  the  water-lily  and  as  pure  in  mind 
as  the  lotus,  who  within  a  few  days  passed  away  from 
the  sorrows  of  life.  His  father  was  of  the  tribe  of 
the  Sakyas ;  and  the  name  of  the  family  was  Gautama, 
and  the  name  of  the  son  was  Siddartha.  And  afterward, 
when  he  became  a  monk,  he  was  called  Sakya-Muni,  the 
monk  of  the  Sakyas.  It  was  not  until  after  his  great 
experience  beneath  the  fig-tree  that  he  became  Buddha, 
the  enlightened  one,  the  truly  wise,  or  the  awakened. 
As  Nazareth,  where  Jesus  was  brought  up,  was  compar- 
atively remote  from  the  centre  of  Jewish  civilization,  so 
Siddartha's  early  home  was  "far  from  the  site  of  Yedic 
culture."  "  In  fact,"  says  Professor  Hopkins,  "  where 
Gautama  lived  there  was  rather  more  respect  paid  to 
the  ascetic  than  to  the  priest.     Gautama  was  most  fort- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  163 

unate  in  his  birth  and  birth-place.  An  aristocrat,  he 
became  an  ascetic  in  a  land  where  priests  were  particu- 
larly disregarded.  He  had  no  public  opinion  to  contend 
against  when,  later,  he  declared  that  Brahman  birth  and 
Brahman  wisdom  had  no  value."  (Hopkins,  "  Religions 
of  India,"  p.  303.)  "When  Siddartha  was  born,  under  the 
lofty  satin-tree  in  the  garden  of  the  Lumbini,  according 
to  Buddhist  legend,  "  all  the  worlds  were  flooded  with 
light.  The  blind  received  their  sight,  by  longing  to  see 
the  coming  glory  of  the  Lord ;  the  deaf  and  dumb  spoke 
with  one  another  of  the  good  omens  indicating  the  birth 
of  Buddha.  The  crooked  became  straight;  the  lame 
walked.  All  prisoners  were  freed  from  their  chains,  and 
the  fires  of  all  the  hells  were  extinguished.  No  clouds 
gathered  in  the  skies,  and  the  polluted  streams  became 
clear,  whilst  celestial  music  rang  through  the  air  and 
the  angels  rejoiced  with  gladness.  With  no  selfish  or 
partial  joy,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  law,  they  rejoiced,  for 
creation  engulfed  in  the  ocean  of  pain  was  now  to  obtain 
release.  The  cries  of  beasts  were  hushed ;  all  malevo- 
lent beings  received  a  loving  heart,  and  peace  reigned 
on  earth.  Mara,  the  evil  one,  alone  was  grieved  and 
rejoiced  not."  ("  Birth  Stories,"  p.  64.)  The  accounts 
agree  that  Siddartha  was  distinguished  for  purity  of 
life,  for  intellectual  power,  for  bodily  vigor,  and  that  he 
was  happily  married  at  an  early  age  to  the  daughter  of 
a  neighboring  Rajah.  He  experienced  life  on  its  bright- 
er and  more  beautiful  sides,  but  was  not  satisfied.  A 
noble  unrest  took  possession  of  his  soul.  He  saw  age, 
sickness,  death,  and  the  myriad  forms  of  sorrow  about 
him,  and  he  began  to  ask  the  nineteenth-century  ques- 
tion :  "  Is  life  worth  living  ?  "  He  was  possessed  with 
the  prevailing  belief  in  reincarnation,  and  it  was  "  in 


1G4  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

order  to  free  himself  from  future  returns  of  these  ills, 
that  Gautama  renounced  his  home."  (Hopkins,  p.  302.) 
Even  the  birth  of  a  son  had  not  satisfied  and  contented 
his  heart.  And,  looking  around  him,  he  felt  that  only 
the  ascetic,  the  man  who  had  given  up  human  ties  and 
relationships,  was  superior  to  the  depressing  influences 
of  time  and  the  degradation  of  the  body.  And,  thus,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-nine  he  made  what  has  been  called 
the  Great  Renunciation.  He  left  his  home,  his  wife,  his 
princely  dignities,  and  went  off,  not  knowing  whither  he 
went.  This  great  act  has  touched  the  heart  of  mankind  ; 
and  it  finds  its  parallel  in  the  lives  of  multitudes  who, 
in  Christian  and  other  lands,  moved  by  the  same  unrest, 
and  faint  with  the  "weary  weight  of  all  this  unintelligi- 
ble world,"  have  looked  to  the  desert,  to  monastic  seclu- 
sion, to  the  ascetic  life  for  release,  believing  that  the 
Divine  Spirit  was  summoning  them  out  of  the  world  to 
save  the  soul.  And  there  is  a  universal  truth  under- 
lying this  exaggeration,  which  Goethe  has  uttered  most 
impressively : 

"  Renounce,  renounce,  renunciation, 
Such  is  the  everlasting  song 

Which  in  the  ears  of  all  men  rings, 
Which  every  day  our  whole  life  long 

In  brazen  accents  hoarsely  sings." 

"  That  night  at  midnight,"  we  are  told,  "  Buddha  sent 
his  charioteer  for  his  horse,  and  whilst  he  was  gone  he 
went  to  the  threshold  of  his  wife's  chamber,  and  there, 
by  the  light  of  the  flickering  lamp,  he  watched  her 
sleeping,  surrounded  by  flowers,  with  one  hand  on  the 
head  of  their  child.  He  had  wished  for  the  last  time  to 
take  the  babe  in  his  arms  before  he  left,  but  he  now  saw 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  165 

that  lie  could  not  do  so  without  awaking  the  mother." 
(lihys  Davids,  "  Buddhism,"  p.  31.)  Buddha  was  alert  to 
save  his  own  soul ;  and,  taking  the  garments  of  a  beggar, 
he  went  to  one  famous  teacher  and  then  to  another,  to 
learn  what  Brahmanism  had  to  impart  concerning  the 
way  of  escape  from  life  and  of  union  with  the  Universal 
Spirit.  How  different  from  the  discipline  to  which 
Jesus  voluntarily  submitted  Himself !  The  Prophet  of 
Nazareth  never  withdrew  from  the  relationships  of  hu- 
man life  and  from  human  society  in  order  to  save  his 
own  soul,  or  to  discover  wisdom  whereby  he  might  save 
mankind.  Buddha  was  disappointed  in  the  search. 
His  six  years  of  asceticism  did  not  give  him  emancipa- 
tion, and  he  afterward  said :  "  If  any  other  man  thinks 
that  he  may  trust  for  salvation  to  the  works  of  merit  and 
self-mortification,  I  more."  He  had  attempted  every- 
thing which  the  Brahmans  prescribed — concentration  of 
mind,  Yoga-discipline,  self-torture,  and  starving  himself 
nearly  to  death,  until  he  reduced  his  daily  allowance  of 
food  to  a  single  grain  of  rice  ;  all  this  was  a  failure,  and 
finally,  in  self-disgust,  he  began  to  eat  like  other  men, 
even  though  his  five  disciples  abandoned  him  as  an 
apostate.  He  was  now  tempted  to  return  to  his  family, 
but  he  wrestled  with  the  temptation  and  with  other 
spiritual  trials.  Abandoned  by  his  friends,  tempted  by 
the  allurements  of  home,  depressed  by  his  failures,  he 
wandered  out  toward  the  banks  of  a  river,  and  having 
received  his  morning  meal  from  the  daughter  of  a  neigh- 
boring villager,  he  sat  down  under  the  shade  of  a  great 
fig-tree,  which  was  thenceforth  to  be  reverenced  by  all 
his  followers  as  the  Bo-tree,  or  tree  of  enlightenment,  of 
divine  wisdom,  and  to  be  deemed  by  them  as  holy  as  is 
the  Cross  to  the  followers  of  Jesus.     There  he  remained, 


166  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

doubting,  debating,  sorrowing.  Was  there  no  peace 
anywhere  ?  Must  he  return  defeated,  and  live  the  life 
of  other  men  ?  Through  all  that  day  and  through  all 
the  night,  and  through  many  days  and  many  nights,  ac- 
cording to  some,  he  sat  there  till  the  great  victory  came, 
till  he  beheld  the  open  secret  by  which  he  was  to  move 
the  world,  that  not  by  works  of  penance  and  self- 
mortification  in  which  he  had  trusted  (his  pride  in  re- 
gard to  these  was  crucified),  but  that  by  the  extinction 
of  desire  not  only  through  inward  discipline,  but  through 
love  to  others,  were  peace  and  salvation  attainable. 
"  Before  the  simplicity  and  power  of  this  way  of  salva- 
tion, salvation  from  the  lower  self,  especially  from  the 
craving  of  continuous  personal  life,  sacrifices  and  pen- 
ances lost  their  efficacy  and  the  Yeda  its  supernatural 
authority."  (Grant,  "  Religions  of  the  World,"  p.  114.) 
In  that  enlightenment  which  he  had  attained  he  saw  the 
artificiality  of  caste,  and  he  thought  he  saw  that  God 
was  unnecessary.  To  him  was  given  a  partial  truth 
with  which  to  move  the  minds  of  men  away  from  the 
errors  inherent  in  Brahmanical  worship  and  discipline  ; 
and  from  the  moment  of  his  enlightenment  life  became  a 
new  thing.  But  though  we  may  say  "  the  desert  rejoiced 
and  the  wilderness  became  vocal  with  praise,"  Buddha 
was  wanting  in  just  that  support  and  exaltation  which 
a  knowledge  of  God  would  have  given  him.  He  felt  his 
loneliness,  his  separation  by  a  vast  remove  from  the  be- 
liefs of  his  people  ;  and  it  appeared  to  him  well-nigh 
impossible  at  first  to  go  to  his  fellow-countrymen  with 
teachings  so  incomprehensible  and  strange. 

It  was  undoubtedly  a  great  hour  in  the  history  of  the 
human  soul  when  Buddha  became  enlightened  by  his 
partial  visions  of  truth.     And  what  was  the  truth  which 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  167 

he  came  then  to  believe  ?     What  was  the  wisdom  which, 
out  of  pity  to  mankind,  he  was  later  moved  to  declare  ? 

I.  Birth  is  sorrow,  age  is  sorrow,  sickness  is  sorrow, 
death  is  sorrow,  clinging  to  earthly  things  is  sorrow. 

II.  Birth  and  re-birth,  the  chain  of  re-incarnations, 
result  from  the  thirst  for  life,  together  with  passion  and 
desire. 

III.  The  only  escape  from  this  thirst  is  the  annihila- 
tion of  desire. 

IV.  The  only  way  of  escape  from  this  thirst  is  by  fol- 
lowing the  Eightfold  Path :  Bight  belief,  right  resolve, 
right  word,  right  act,  right  life,  right  effort,  right  think- 
ing, right  meditation. 

Now  men  deny  the  complete  originality  of  Buddha's 
discovery,  and  may  trace  resemblances  between  his  doc- 
trine aud  what  had  preceded  him,  and  yet  it  must  be 
confessed  that  he  rose  away  above  Brahmanism  as  gen- 
erally taught  and  practised  by  the  discovery  of  his 
method  of  emancipation  through  inward  discipline  and 
love,  rather  than  through  asceticism  and  sacrifice.  It 
may  seem  to  us  strange  that  his  teaching  inspired  any 
joyful  enthusiasm,  and  that  it  sent  forth  disciples  to 
preach  the  gospel  of  Buddha  ;  but  it  did.  They  found 
comfort  in  his  truth,  and  his  progress  was  like  that  of  a 
king  at  whose  approach  prisoners  escape  from  confine- 
ment. He  won  back  his  five  apostate  disciples,  and 
called  to  him,  unlike  Jesus,  many  who  were  mighty  and 
noble  and  learned.  "  It  is  the  rich  youth  of  Benares 
that  flock  about  him,  of  whom  sixty  soon  are  counted, 
and  these  are  sent  out  to  all  lands  to  preach  the  gospel, 
each  to  speak  in  his  own  tongue  ;  for  religion  was  from 
this  time  on  no  longer  to  be  hid  under  the  veil  of  an  un- 
intelligible language."     "  And,  in  their  early  zeal,"  as 


168  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Dr.  Kellogg  has  said,  "  the  Buddhists  put  many  Chris- 
tians to  shame."  Men  learn  from  him  that  neither 
pleasure  nor  asceticism  is  the  way  that  leads  to  salva- 
tion, but  the  middle  path  which  he  had  found  between 
those  extremes.  He  organizes  his  church  or  society  of 
monks,  who  take  upon  them  the  ten  vows — not  to  kill, 
not  to  steal,  to  abstain  from  impurity,  not  to  lie,  to  ab- 
stain from  intoxicating  drinks,  not  to  eat  at  forbidden 
times ;  to  abstain  from  dancing,  singing,  music,  and 
stage-plays ;  not  to  use  garlands,  scents,  or  ornaments  ; 
not  to  use  a  high  or  broad  bed  ;  not  to  receive  gold  or 
silver."  And  while  these  commands  are  not  new,  the 
whole  disci pline  of  life  is  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
Brahmans,  and  Buddha  makes  the  lowest  equal  to  the 
highest.  Though  his  own  success  depended  largely  on 
his  alliance  with  the  mighty,  he  gave  the  people  the  op- 
portunity of  salvation,  not  through  life-long  torture,  not 
through  ritual  and  unintelligible  liturgies,  but  through 
the  humaner  method  of  purity,  compassion,  and  equality. 
Buddha  said :  "  He  that  is  pure  in  heart  is  the  true 
priest,  not  he  that  knows  the  Yedas.  Like  unto  one 
that  standeth  where  a  king  hath  stood  and  spoken,  and 
standing  and  speaking  there  deems  himself  for  this  a 
king,  seems  to  me  the  man  that  repeateth  the  hymns 
which  the  wise  men  of  old  have  spoken,  and  standing  in 
their  place  and  speaking  deems  himself  for  this  a  sage. 
The  Devas  are  nothing,  the  priests  of  no  account,  save 
as  they  be  morally  of  repute.  Again,  what  use  to  mor- 
tify the  flesh  ?  Asceticism  is  of  no  value.  Be  pure,  be 
good;  this  is  the  foundation  of  wisdom — to  restrain 
desire,  to  be  satisfied  with  little.  He  is  a  holy  man 
who  doeth  this.  Knowledge  follows  this."  (Hopkins, 
"  Hinduism,"  p.  319.) 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  169 

Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  continued  His  minis- 
try about  three  years ;  Lord  Buddha,  as  he  is  styled, 
nearly  fifty  years.  Jesus  gathered  about  Him  a  few 
hundred  disciples ;  Buddha,  many  thousands.  The 
ministry  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges  was  more  fruitful 
apparently  and  successful  than  that  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan.  He  who  prayed  and  toiled  in  sight  of  the  snow- 
peak  of  Hermon  lived  a  sterner  and  more  sorrowing  life 
than  the  mild  Indian  sage  whose  eyes  rested  on  the 
snow  summits  of  the  Himalayas.  Jesus  and  His  doc- 
trine were  beset  by  malignant  and  ceaseless  antagon- 
isms, while  Buddha's  ministry  was  scarcely  opposed  in 
its  constant  triumph.  The  Prophet  of  Judea  saw  the 
Cross  before  His  eyes,  and  went  resolutely  up  to  Jeru- 
salem to  be  crucified.  The  Prophet  of  Kapilavastu  met 
his  earthly  end  through  sickness,  which  the  "  Blessed 
One,"  mindful  and  self-possessed,  bore  without  com- 
plaint. In  his  farewell  address  he  said  to  his  beloved 
companions,  Ananda  and  the  rest,  "  Be  ye  lamps  of  your- 
selves. Rely  on  yourselves.  Hold  fast  to  the  truth  as 
a  lamp.  Seek  salvation  alone  in  the  truth."  And  per- 
ceiving that  death  was  near,  he  said :  "  He  who  gives 
away  shall  have  real  gain.  He  who  subdues  himself 
shall  be  free  of  passion.  The  righteous  man  casts  off 
sin  ;  and  by  rooting  out  lust,  bitterness,  and  delusion,  do 
we  reach  Nirvana."  Weary  and  laying  himself  down 
on  his  couch,  between  the  twin  shala  trees,  the  Blessed 
One  reposed  while  heavenly  songs  came  wafted  from 
the  skies.  And  when  his  followers  wept  at  his  approach- 
ing death,  he  said  :  "  Why  should  I  preserve  this  body 
of  flesh,  when  the  body  of  the  excellent  law  will  endure  ?  " 
And  Ananda,  suppressing  his  tears,  said  to  the  Blessed 
One :  "  Who  shall  teach  us  when  thou  art  gone?  "     And 


170  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

the  Blessed  One  replied,  "  I  am  not  the  first  Buddha 
who  came  upon  earth,  nor  shall  I  be  the  last.  I  came 
to  teach  you  the  truth,  and  I  have  founded  on  earth  the 
kingdom  of  truth.  Gautama  Siddartha  will  die,  but 
Buddha  will  live  ;  for  Buddha  is  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
cannot  die.  He  who  believes  in  the  truth  and  lives  is 
my  disciple,  and  I  shall  teach  him.  The  truth  will  be 
propagated  and  the  kingdom  will  increase  for  about  five 
hundred  years  ;  then  for  awhile  the  clouds  of  error  will 
darken  the  light ;  and  in  due  time  another  Buddha  will 
arise  and  he  will  reveal  to  you  the  self-same  eternal 
truth  which  I  have  taught  you."  An  an  da  said  :  "  How 
shall  we  know  him?"  The  blessed  One  said:  "The 
Buddha  that  will  come  after  me  will  be  known  as 
Maitreya,  which  means,  He  whose  name  is  kindness." 
And  later  the  Holy  One  said  :  ' '  I  have  first  broken  the 
egg-shell  of  ignorance,  and  alone  in  the  universe  obtained 
the  most  exalted  universal  Bucldhahood ;  thus,  O  disci- 
ples, I  am  the  oldest,  the  noblest  of  these.  Behold,  now, 
brethren,  I  exhort  you,  saying,  Decay  is  inherent  in  all 
component  things,  but  the  truth  will  remain  forever. 
Work  out  your  salvation  with  diligence."  (See  Dr.  Paul 
Carus's  "  The  Gospel  of  Buddha.")  This  was  the  last 
word.  He  fell  in  deep  meditation,  and,  having  lost 
consciousness,  passed  peacefully  away.  When  the 
Blessed  One  entered  Nirvana  there  arose,  at  his  passing 
out  of  existence,  a  mighty  earthquake,  terrible  and  awe- 
inspiring;  and  the  thunders  of  heaven  burst  forth, 
and  of  those  of  the  brethren  who  were  not  free  from 
passions  some  stretched  out  their  arms  and  wept,  and 
some  fell  headlong  on  the  ground  in  anguish  at  the 
thought :  "  Too  soon  has  the  Blessed  One  died !  Too 
soon  has  the  Happy  One  passed  away  from  existence ! 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  171 

Too  soon  lias  the  Light  of  the  World  gone  out !  "  To 
find  anything  parallel  with  this,  we  must  go  to  the  dun- 
geon and  death-bed  of  Socrates. 

Perhaps  the  fundamental  distinction  between  Buddh- 
ism and  Christianity  may  be  discerned  in  these  char- 
acteristic texts.  Buddhism  says  :  "  Be  a  refuge  to 
yourselves."  Christianity  exclaims  :  "  The  eternal  God 
is  thy  refuge."  Buddhism,  as  Principal  Caird  has  writ- 
ten, "  may  be  taken  as  the  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  sub- 
jective religion."  ("  The  Evolution  of  Beligion,"  Vol. 
L,  p.  366.)  Thus,  indeed,  it  shows  its  one-sidedness 
and  its  fatal  deficiency.  It  rendered  a  service,  and  a 
great  service,  to  religion  ;  but  was  it  not  after  all  largely  a 
negative  service  ?  We  may  believe,  with  Dr.  Fairbaim, 
that,  on  account  of  its  high  ethical  spirit,  it  was  more 
theistic  than  the  Brahmanism  which  had  driven  God 
out  of  morality  into  ritualism  ;  but  it  certainly  divorced 
two  elements  which  Christianity  binds  indissolubly  to- 
gether. That  he  never  gained  the  idea  of  a  personal 
and  self-existent  God ;  that  his  spiritual  genius  did  not 
build  on  that  truth  the  moral  and  rational  evidences 
for  which  have  commanded  the  assent  of  the  supreme 
minds,  and,  it  may  almost  be  said,  of  the  universal 
mind  of  our  race ;  and  that  he  trusted  so  completely  to 
certain  philosophic  abstractions  and  to  certain  theories 
of  the  soul  which  have  gained  only  a  local  acceptance, 
reveals  to  us  at  once  the  limitation  of  this  saintly  sage 
and  of  the  system  which  grew  out  of  his  doctrine.  The 
Prophet  who  is  also  the  Priest  and  the  King  of  the 
Christian  faith  brought  into  human  life  a  new  sense 
and  certainty  that  God  is  love.  His  foremost  and  fun- 
damental teaching  was  of  a  sympathetic,  all-compas- 
sionate,  divine  Father,  to  whom  every  soul,  however 


172  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

wayward,  misguided,  and  sinful,  may  come  with  abso- 
lute confidence.  Men  might  have  felt  before  the  coming 
of  Christ  the  truth  of  Browning's  logical  inquiry :  "  He 
that  created  Love,  shall  He  not  love  ?  "  But  Jesus  fur- 
nished to  this  truth  new  and  overwhelming  argument 
and  evidence  in  Himself,  as  the  very  disclosure  of  the 
divine  Fatherhood,  and  breathed  the  breath  of  life  into 
what  otherwise  would  have  been  an  unmeaning  phrase. 
He  alone  is  responsible  for  persuading  men  to-day  that 
God  is  our  Father,  and  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  Chris- 
tendom the  faith  has  gone  which  is  beginning  to  har- 
monize the  teachings  of  many  races  and  religions. 
There  is  no  doubt  among  the  extremest  unbelievers  and 
wildest  socialists  of  our  time  that  Jesus  Christ  mani- 
fested His  love  toward  all  men,  and  that  His  was  the 
spirit  of  the  broadest  and  most  impartial  affection ; 
and  Jesus  does  not  represent  a  different  attitude  of 
mind  or  a  different  temper  of  heart  from  that  of  the 
divine  Father.  The  identity  of  the  two  is  what  He  al- 
ways teaches.  Gautama's  doctrine  was  fundamentally 
ethical,  and  he  founded  a  brotherhood  which  did  service 
in  breaking  down  the  barriers  of  caste ;  but  Christian- 
ity's doctrine  of  brotherhood  is  made  permanent  and 
rational  as  an  essential  part  of  a  divine  Fatherhood. 
Destroy  the  Pater  Noster  as  humanity's  fundamental 
creed,  and  brotherhood  is  gone,  or,  at  best,  we  are  a 
fraternity  of  aliens,  a  community  of  exiles ;  we  are  cer- 
tainty beggars,  who  have  no  common  heavenly  bond 
holding  us  together  in  reverent  dutifulness.  "We  must 
give  up,  as  Buddhism  did,  the  hope  of  human  progress, 
and  expect  our  civilization,  if  not  stagnant  as  has  been 
that  of  Asia,  then  to  become  like  that  of  ancient  Rome, 
where  class  was  arrayed  against  class,  where  selfish- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  173 

ness  clashed  against  selfishness,  and  where,  as  faith  in 
the  divine  died  out,  men  became  more  and  more  hope- 
less and  satanic. 

Of  course,  in  Buddhism  there  is  absolutely  no  knowl- 
edge of  forgiveness  of  sins.  Human  life  does  not 
breathe  the  atmosphere  of  divine  Fatherhood,  but 
groans  under  the  dominion  of  inexorable  and  implaca- 
ble laws ;  and  it  is  no  relief  to  look  out  upon  the  world 
as  a  world  of  misfortune,  rather  than  a  world  of  sin.  The 
touch  of  divine  pity  is  wanting.  But  Buddhism  has  never 
remained  for  a  long  time  faithful  to  the  fundamental 
agnosticism.  The  gods  came  back,  and,  with  the  return, 
men  prayed,  and  have  accepted  here  and  there  some 
substitute  for  God ;  and  what  was  in  the  beginning  a 
great  ethical  movement  has  had  the  most  fantastic 
developments  of  formalism  in  prayer  and  worship. 
"  Buddhism,"  it  has  been  said,  "  is  the  only  religion 
that  has  invented  praying  by  machinery,  or  what  Car- 
lyle  calls  '  the  rotary  calabash  system  ! '  Cranks,  winds 
and  waters  are  enlisted  in  the  service,  the  object  being 
to  sfcore  up  merit  by  incessant  repetition  of  prayer.  A 
rich  harvest  awaits  the  American  or  European  trader 
who  first  introduces  dynamos  into  those  countries ! " 
(Grant,  "  Religions  of  the  World,"  p.  132.) 

Original  Buddhism,  without  any  doctrine  of  God,  is 
also  without  a  true  doctrine  of  the  soul.  The  soul  is 
not  an  entity ;  we  are  not  being  so  much  as  becoming, 
because  we  are  never  the  same  two  consecutive  instants. 
The  soul  is  the  result  of  the  combined  action  of  material 
properties,  sense,  abstract  ideas,  propensities.  And 
since,  as  Buddhism  teaches,  the  inborn  element  of  desire 
has  a  tendency  to  lead  men  into  evil,  and  since  guilt 
hangs  upon  the  issues  of  a  former  life,  there  is  a  rest- 


174  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

less  and  uncontrolled  force  in  the  soul  which  must  incar- 
nate itself  in  other  forms  hereafter ;  and  what  is  left  is 
called  Kharma — the  act,  the  doing — man's  record  involv- 
ing the  consequences  and  liabilities  of  his  deeds,  his 
score  that  must  be  settled.  And  it  is  Kharma,  this 
flame  of  the  soul,  that  must  enter  some  other  being, 
divine,  human  or  beastly.  Thus,  Buddhism  involves  the 
teaching  that  responsibility  is  transferred  to  this  other. 
The  goal  which  made  Buddha's  teaching  a  dubious 
gospel  is  Nirvana,  which  involves,  according  to  the 
usual  interpretation,  the  extinction  of  love  and  life  as 
the  going  out  of  a  flame  which  has  nothing  else  to  feed 
upon.  Whether  Nirvana  means  the  extinction  of  the 
evil  passions  and  of  delusions  which  may  be  attained  in 
this  life,  as  Buddha  attained  it  under  the  Bo-tree  at  the 
end  of  his  spiritual  struggle ;  whether  it  means  absorp- 
tion into  infinite  Brahma ;  or  whether  we  agree  with  Rhys 
Davids,  that  utter  death  with  no  life  to  follow  is  the 
result  of,  but  is  not  itself  Nirvana,  practical  Buddhists 
care  little  or  nothing  for  the  theory,  or  the  various 
theories,  for  what  they  hope  is  a  better  birth  and  an 
improved  transmigration,  either  in  the  heavens  or  on 
earth.  Buddhism  insists  on  the  essential  evil  of  exist- 
ence, Christianity  on  the  essential  good  of  life.  Salva- 
tion with  the  Buddhists  is  not  to  be.  As  Dr.  Schroeder 
has  written  :  "  Death  in  Buddhism  is  the  wages  of  life, 
but  in  Christianity  it  is  the  wages  of  sin.  Buddha  re- 
deems from  life,  Christ  from  sin." 

The  subtleties  of  Buddhist  metaphysics  and  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Buddhist  ethics  have  had  a  most  volumi- 
nous expression  in  the  scriptures  which  the  disciples 
of  Gautama  have  heaped  about  the  facts  and  legends 
of  his  life.     In  the  great  council  called  by  Asoka,  often 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  175 

named  the  Buddhist  Constantine,  but  a  better  man  than 
the  shrewd  and  savage  Roman  emperor,  the  Buddhist 
canonical  scriptures,  or  those  of  the  southern  church, 
were  settled ;  but  it  was  not  until  88  B.C.  that  the  three 
Pitakas,  the  boxes  or  baskets,  as  the  scriptures  in  Cey- 
lon were  called,  were  committed  to  writing  in  that  ver- 
nacular form  of  the  Sanscrit  which  is  known  as  the  Pali. 
They  have  since  been  translated  into  many  languages, 
such  as  Chinese,  Tibetan  and  others.  And  "  the  copy 
in  nineteen  volumes  lately  presented  to  the  University 
of  Oxford  by  the  King  of  Siam  contains,  as  Max  Miiller 
has  said,  '  the  Pali  text  written  in  Siamese  letters,'  but 
the  language  is  always  the  same ;  it  is  the  Pali,  or  the 
vulgar  tongue,  as  it  was  supposed  to  have  been  spoken 
by  Buddha  himself  about  500  B.C."  (The  Nineteenth 
Century,  September,  1895,  p.  502.)  A  copy  of  the  Buddh- 
ist scriptures,  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  receiving  a 
few  years  ago,  is  in  four  hundred  volumes.  Professor 
Max  Miiller  has  recently  described  for  us  the  Kutho- 
Daw,  "  which  is  a  Buddhist  monument  near  Mandalay,  in 
Burma,  consisting  of  about  seven  hundred  temples,  each 
containing  a  slab  of  white  marble,  on  which  the  whole 
of  this  Buddhist  bible,  the  whole  of  their  eight  millions 
of  syllables,  have  been  carefully  engraved.  The  alpha- 
bet is  Burmese,  the  language  is  Pali.  "Well  may  the 
Buddhists  say  that  such  a  bible  on  white  marble  can- 
not be  matched  in  the  whole  world.  I  am  glad  it  can- 
not. Think  of  the  expenditure  of  labor  and  money,  and 
what  is  the  result  ?  A  small  copy  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment our  University  Press  turns  out  for  a  penny  a 
copy  is  more  useful,  has  more  power  for  good  in  it." 
(The  Nineteenth  Century,  September,  1895,  p.  503.) 
And  surely  the  practical  results  of  Christianity  justify 


176  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

this  eulogium.  I  am  not  in  the  least  disposed  to  min- 
imize the  benefactions  of  any  of  the  Oriental  faiths. 
"  Surely  we  may  trace,"  as  Dr.  Berry  has  said,  "  even 
in  this  strange  development  of  human  thought,  part  of 
the  Divine  discipline  by  which  this  race  of  men  was 
being  tutored  and  trained  for  higher  life  and  fuller 
revelation.  Nor  need  we  doubt  but  what  the  Eternal 
Father  who  created  them,  who  determined  their  ap- 
pointed seasons  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation,  so 
that  they  might  feel  after  Him  and  find  Him,  saw  in 
their  creed  and  in  their  philosophy  something  more  than 
grotesque  mistakes  and  irrational  conceptions."  (Berry 
"Christianity  and  Buddhism,"  p.  25.)  Buddhism 
wrought  much  splendid  work.  It  made  great  progress, 
it  breathed  peace  and  good-will,  it  built  hospitals  for 
men  and  beasts,  it  taught  self-sacrifice  and  tolerance,  it 
deprecated  war,  favored  compassion,  and  pronounced 
against  avarice.  The  strength  and  the  glory  of  Buddh- 
ism are  its  ethical  system.  Its  philosophical  creed 
may  be  puerile  and  its  discipline  artificial,  but  its  mor- 
al code  appeals  to  the  conscience.  It  maps  out  the 
middle  path,  the  via  media,  and  proclaims  that  the 
way  to  perfect  peace  is  the  way  that  no  unrighteous  man 
can  enter  and  no  unclean  man  can  attain.  Buddhism 
preached  a  type  of  morality  to  which  the  old  Brahman- 
ism  was  a  stranger.  Ethical  elements  are  universal 
and  enduring.  There  are  many  indestructible  elements 
in  Buddhism.  The  substitution  of  real  for  ceremonial 
righteousness  was  a  great  gain.  But  the  end  of  all 
Buddha's  efforts  was  to  avoid  that  which  the  Christian 
aspires  to — intense,  conscious,  personal  blessedness. 
Buddhism  commends  itself  to  many  on  account  of  its 
marked  individualism  ;  its  magnifying  of  the  human  in- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  177 

tellect,  and  the  powers  of  the  human  will ;  its  glorifying 
the  religion  of  humanity,  and  the  relief  of  bodily  dis- 
tresses. But  its  weakness  is  the  perverted  judgment 
which,  failing  to  recognize  or  care  for  the  anguish  of 
the  human  spirit  when  mastered  by  guilt,  la}rs  emphasis 
on  the  importance  of  worms  and  reptiles  and  insects 
and  whatever  possesses  life.  To  the  question  of  Christ : 
"  Are  ye  not  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows,"  Buddh- 
ism, it  has  been  said,  would  be  compelled  to  give  a 
doubtful  answer.  While  this  system  has  given  to  large 
areas  of  Asia  gentleness  of  manner  and  kindness  to 
animals,  it  has  never  developed  the  stronger  forms  and 
the  completer  types  of  manhood,  and  has  conspicuously 
lacked  the  power  of  continuous  progress.  Ferguson 
has  claimed  that  "  no  Aryan  race,  while  existing  in  any- 
thing like  purity,  was  ever  converted  to  Buddhism,  or 
could  permanently  adopt  its  doctrine,"  and  the  same  as- 
sertion has  been  made  of  it  in  regard  to  Semitic  na- 
tions. How  could  it  be  otherwise  with  a  faith  which 
fails  to  link  humanity  with  God  ?  Buddha  himself 
seemed  to  have  only  a  faltering  faith  that  his  "gospel  " 
was  to  conquer  the  world.  Nothing  rings  out  like  the 
declaration  of  Jesus  :  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me."  Buddha  said : 
"  So  long  as  the  brethren  shall  exercise  themselves  in 
the  sevenfold  higher  wisdom,  that  is  to  say,  in  mental 
activity,  search  after  truth,  energy,  joy,  peace,  earnest 
contemplation,  and  equanimity  of  mind,  so  long  may 
the  brethren  be  expected  not  to  decline,  but  to  prosper." 
(Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta.)  But  the  Christian  Gospel 
strikes  a  higher  and  more  hopeful  note  than  saying,  "Be 
good,  for  it  is  good  to  be  good."  It  identifies  the  prac- 
tice of  the  most  perfect  ethics  with  love  and  loyalty  to 
12 


178  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

the  most  perfect  Being,  and  binds  the  human  soul  to 
the  heart  of  God.  No  wonder  that  the  progressive 
power  of  Buddhism  has  waned  and  its  spirit  seems  to 
many  of  its  disciples  nearly  exhausted.  The  Christian 
message  is  far  more  and  better  than  an  ethical  creed. 
If  the  life-work  of  Jesus  had  ended  with  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  His  career  would  have  much  more  closely 
resembled  that  of  Buddha.  But  the  Jesus  who  taught 
us  the  perfect  law,  gave  us  also  the  Gospel  which  cen- 
tres in  divine  love,  forgiveness,  and  redeeming  mercy. 
The  message  of  Buddha,  which  is  a  strange  mingling  of 
humanitarianism  and  scepticism,  is  not  able  to  fulfil  the 
brilliant  promises  of  its  beginning,  and  to  render  radi- 
cal and  permanent  services  to  the  human  spirit,  even  as 
the  premium  which  it  put  upon  mendicancy  and  celi- 
bacy shows  that  it  cannot  work  out  the  noblest  fruitage 
and  the  best  results.  Making  all  allowances  in  the  re- 
ports which  come  to  us  from  careful  Christian  mission- 
aries who  have  had  years  of  observation,  we  may  rightly 
say  with  Dr.  Marcus  Dodds,  "  Buddhism  has  notori- 
ously failed  to  make  man  moral,  and  it  is  not  enough 
that  a  religion  provide  healthful,  moral  teaching — it 
must  also  furnish  us  with  a  most  powerful  moral  energy." 
"We  are  saved  by  hope,  and  surely  it  is  not  a  hopeful 
view  of  life  which  Buddhism  in  its  best  form  and  teach- 
ing presents  to  mankind.  And  perhaps  its  gloomiest 
presentation  is  that  of  one  of  the  pictures  which  I  have 
examined  in  an  interesting  collection  %  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago.  A  great  tree  overhangs  an  abyss ;  a 
thread  is  tied  to  the  giant  limb ;  attached  to  this  cord, 
half  way  down  to  the  sea,  is  a  man.  He  looks  below 
him  and  there  is  the  howling  abyss,  with  a  sea-monster 

*  Made  by  Dr.  Edmund  Buckley. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  179 

ready  to  devour  him  ;  he  looks  above  him  and  an  equally 
ferocious  monster  crouches  on  the  limb,  while  two  mice, 
one  white  and  the  other  black,  representing  day  and 
night,  are  gnawing  at  the  thread  by  which  he  is  sus- 
pended. 

"  In  no  religion,"  it  has  been  truly  said,  "  are  we  so 
constantly  reminded  of  our  own  as  in  Buddhism,  and 
yet  in  no  religion  has  man  been  drawn  away  so  far  from 
the  truth  as  in  the  religion  of  Buddha."  Many  have 
been  impressed  by  St.  Hilaire's  eulogy  of  Prince  Sid- 
dartha  :  "  His  life  had  no  taint ;  his  constant  heroism 
equals  his  convictions,  and,  if  the  theory  which  he  pre- 
conceived was  false,  the  personal  example  which  he 
gave  was  irreproachable."  And  yet,  since  through  the 
early  years  of  his  life  he  lived  in  what,  according  to  his 
own  teaching,  was  heinous  sin,  we  have  no  historic 
right  to  say,  even  of  Buddha,  that  he  takes  rank  with 
Jesus  in  the  perfection  of  his  holiness.  Gautama,  after 
his  enlightenment,  was  at  first  undecided  whether  he 
should  keep  his  new  faith  to  himself  or  proclaim  it  to 
others.  Not  so  Jesus.  Buddha  made  discoveries ;  the 
Christ  revealed  what  was  from  within.  Buddha  taught 
the  vileness  of  the  human  body ;  Christ  its  sacredness. 
The  system  of  Buddhism  tells  man  that  there  is  no  per- 
fect peace  or  unalloyed  happiness,  and  that  he  may  live 
millions  of  ages  and  not  be  free  from  fear  unless  he  at- 
tains to  the  fate  of  unconsciousness.  We  can  explain 
Buddha  without  the  miracles  which  later  legends  ascribe 
to  him.  We  cannot  explain  Christ,  either  His  Person, 
or  His  influence,  without  granting  the  truth  of  His  own 
claim  that  He  did  the  supernatural  works  of  His  Father. 
Only  His  resurrection  accounts  for  the  rise  and  con- 
tinued existence  of  His  Church.     The  claims  which  He 


180  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

made,  over-passing  infinitely  those  of  any  former 
prophet,  could  have  been  sustained  only  by  a  divine 
Hand.  Christianity  has  points  of  similarity  with  many 
of  the  great  faiths,  but  its  points  of  divergency  and  in- 
disputable, decisive  superiorit}^  are  those  that  indicate 
its  supernatural  origin  and  accompaniments.  "VVe  must 
go  to  Palestine  and  not  to  India  to  find  a  perfect  Man, 
a  perfect  Teacher,  and  the  only  Saviour. 

My  conviction  of  the  woful  failure  of  Buddhism,  de- 
rived from  travel  in  Eastern  lands,  has  not  destroyed 
my  love  and  honor  for  the  foremost  reformer  and  sweet- 
est saint  in  the  non-Christian  world;  but  his  mistakes 
and  limitations  have  appeared  to  me  more  conspicuous 
than  ever,  and  his  errors  and  his  partial  truths  indicate 
the  need  of  someone  who  could  reveal  to  us  authori- 
tatively both  God  and  man  and  show  in  Himself  the 
perfect  harmony  of  ethics  and  piety.  The  Prophet  of 
Nazareth  rises  unspeakably  higher  than  the  Prophet  of 
Kapilivastu.  Multitudes  in  many  lands,  turning  from 
the  formula  for  all  Buddhist  neophytes :  "I  take  my 
refuge  in  Buddha,  in  Dharma  (the  law),  in  Sangha  (the 
order),"  are  finding  refuge  in  the  Christ,  are  finding 
anchorage  in  His  love  and  victory  through  His  cross 
and  resurrection.  I  deem  it  a  great  mistake  for  the 
Christian  missionary  not  to  appreciate  to  the  full  all 
that  Buddha  was  and  did.  "  Any  fragment  of  truth 
which  lies  in  a  heathen  mind  unacknowledged  is  an  in- 
superable barrier  against  conviction;  recognized  and 
used,  it  might  prove  a  help."  (Ellinwood,  "  Oriental 
Religions  and  Christianity,"  p.  101.)  I  go  farther  and 
express  the  conviction  that  the  Christian  world  must 
fully  learn  and  teach  that  God  is  the  God  of  the  whole 
earth,  and  that  He  has  not  been  unmindful  of  the  peo- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  BUDDHISM  181 

pies  who  have  wandered  away  from  truth  and  knowl- 
edge. "It  would  seem  very  hard,"  it  has  been  said, 
"  to  rid  the  minds  of  men  of  the  old  Jewish  idea  that 
God  is  only  a  national  deity ;  national  means  in  this 
sense  that  He  reserved  all  His  favors  for  one  nation  and 
all  His  judgments  for  the  rest  of  humanity."  (Dr.  Ber- 
ry, "Christianity  and  Buddhism,"  p.  9.)  There  have 
been  elements  of  the  Gospel  scattered  and  imperfect 
in  all  the  religions,  and  Buddha  and  his  law,  like  Plato 
and  his  philosophy,  and  Moses  and  his  priesthood,  may 
all  yet  be  seen  to  be  school-masters  leading  to  Christ. 
I  have  come  through  recent  knowledge  and  experience 
to  believe  more  firmly  than  ever  that  Christ  is  great 
enough  to  gather  up  into  Himself  all  that  is  best  outside 
of  Christendom ;  that  He  is  the  fulfilment  as  well  as 
the  inspiration  of  the  truth  and  goodness  which,  in  im- 
perfect forms,  are  yet  discoverable  there.  And  in  the 
last  few  years  many  have  learned  that  the  Christ  whom 
we  have  linked  only  with  Bethlehem  and  Calvary,  and 
chiefly  with  the  lives  of  church-members  in  English- 
speaking  nations,  has  been  working  everywhere  by  His 
Spirit.  Oh  !  how  this  broadens  our  vision  and  makes  it 
our  duty  to  freely  recognize  what  we  once  were  afraid 
to  see  and  proclaim,  the  universal,  or  all  but  univer- 
sal, prevalence  of  certain  generic  ideas  which,  masked 
under  other  names  and  mingled  with  much  of  error, 
point  to  such  realities  as  God,  duty,  sin,  holiness,  im- 
mortality !  To  acknowledge  this  we  once  thought  would 
dishonor  and  render  comparatively  useless  the  Christian 
Gospel,  but  now  we  know  far  better,  and  we  claim  for  Je- 
sus our  King  all  truth  and  goodness  everywhere,  and  we 
go  to  the  nations  and  proclaim  the  larger  Christ  as  the  ful- 
filment of  the  fondest  hopes  and  ideals  of  the  whole  world 


CHAPTEK  YII 

CONFUCIANISM  AND   THE  AWAKENING   OF  CHINA 

In  passing  to-day  from  Hinduism  to  Confucianism, 
we  reach  a  new  area  in  the  Asiatic  mind.  Going  from 
the  banks  of  the  Ganges  to  the  shores  of  the  Yangtse- 
Kiang,  we  leave  the  realms  of  imagination  and  enchant- 
ment for  those  of  commonplace  and  of  prose  ;  we  leave 
a  people  who  are  profound  in  philosophy  and  affluent 
in  fancy,  for  a  race  which  has  a  history  and  believes  in 
history,  for  a  nation  strong  in  social  economics,  in  use- 
ful inventions  and  the  practical  applications  of  knowl- 
edge. In  speaking  of  Confucianism,  we  are  to  speak 
of  a  civilization  which  is  inveterate  in  its  ideas,  plod- 
ding, utilitarian,  practical,  immobile,  persistent ;  a  civil- 
ization that  dwells  in  the  past  and  worships  the  past, 
which  is  rational  and  workaday,  and  gives  us  the  most 
remarkable  illustrations  in  history  of  arrested  develop- 
ment. China  may  be  properly  described  as  "an  old 
man  still  lying  in  his  cradle." 

We  are  in  the  habit  of  eulogizing  the  Sunrise  King- 
dom of  Japan,  and  of  contrasting  with  it  the  sunset 
splendors  of  the  Celestial  Empire  ;  but  the  Japanese, 
with  all  their  quickness  and  mobility,  with  their  splendid 
aptitudes  for  science  and  progress,  are  in  many  respects 
inferior  to  the  more  intellectual,  more  persistent,  and 
more  creative  minds  of  their  Chinese  enemies.  Con- 
fucianism moulded  to  a  degree  the  military  literati  of 

182 


CONFUCIANISM  1S3 

Japan,  but  it  has  been  said  that  "  while  the  Japanese 
for  a  thousand  years  only  repeated  and  recited,  merely 
talking  aloud  in  their  intellectual  sleep,  but  not  reflect- 
ing, China  was  awake  and  thinking  hard." 

One  cannot  even  skirt  the  coasts  of  China,  touch  for 
a  few  hours  at  the  great  port  cities,  look  into  the  mul- 
titudinous streets  and  alleys  of  Shanghai,  or  see  the 
swarms  who  live  and  toil  and  die  in  the  boats  at  Hong- 
Kong  without  an  impression  of  the  vastness  of  that 
greatest  of  empires  which  lies  back  of  the  iron-bound 
sea-coast.  The  river  Yangtse  at  its  mouth  is  an  Ama- 
zon, and  fifty  miles  from  its  mouth  one  cannot  see  the 
shore  on  either  hand  as  he  sails  toward  Shanghai.  This 
river  gives  access  to  the  homes  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  millions  of  people,  more  than  dwell  in  the 
area  of  any  other  stream.  And  then  the  Chinese  ap- 
pear like  a  strong  and  busy  people,  industrious,  frugal, 
capable,  and  one  marvels  that  such  a  nation  should 
have  been  overthrown  in  the  recent  war  by  the  upstart 
Japanese,  until  he  realizes  the  condition  of  the  Chinese 
Government,  the  nature  of  the  army  that  opposed  the 
trained  riflemen  of  Japan,  an  army  which  fought  its 
battles,  not  with  fire-arms,  but  with  fire-works.  The 
Chinese  idea  of  war  is  to  beat  the  drum,  wave  flags  and 
umbrellas,  send  off  rockets,  shoot  arrows,  and  scare  the 
enemy.  It  is  a  favorite  expression  on  the  part  of  some 
Chinese  officials  to  say,  when  accounting  for  Japan's 
recent  surprising  victories,  that  the  Dragon  sleeps.  It 
is  true  indeed,  and  the  dragon  is  no  inapt  symbol  of 
China.  The  huge  monstrous  and  somnolent  mass  of 
humanity  has  been  plunged  for  ages  into  a  sleep  so 
profound  that  only  the  trumpet  of  the  Gospel  can  ever 
thoroughly  rouse  the  great  Empire  from  its  slumbers. 


184:  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

But  when  China  finally  does  move,  as  Napoleon  said, 
"  she  will  move  the  world."  * 

One  of  the  pleasantest  experiences  of  the  world- 
traveller  is  to  escape  from  the  Chinese  ports  and  to 
touch  the  Island  Empire  of  Japan,  the  sanitarium  of 
Asia.  After  passing  through  the  Inland  Sea,  which 
General  Grant  pronounced  the  most  beautiful  sight  in 
the  world,  we  entered  the  port  of  Kobe,  and  there 
had  our  first  sight  of  Japanese  life.  Hundreds  of 
travellers  have  described  the  novel  sensations  of  this  ex- 
perience as  they  first  see  the  tiny,  picturesque,  queer- 
ly  dressed  people,  busy,  restless,  energetic,  and  take 
their  first  drive  in  the  jinrikishas,  an  American  inven- 
tion, by  the  way,  which  has  spread  its  dominion  to  the 
cities  of  China,  Singapore  and  to  Ceylon.  One's  first 
impressions  are  usually  delightful,  and  surely  when  the 
traveller  sees,  as  I  did  in  Kobe,  a  few  hours  after  land- 
ing, a  great  school  of  children  exercising  in  an  open 
square,  drilling  in  gymnastics,  and  realizes  what  pride 
the  modern  Japanese  entertains  for  the  public-school 
system,  he  feels,  after  his  journey  in  India  and  China, 
that  he  has  touched  the  realm  of  civilization  and  prog- 
ress. Japan  is  surely  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  na- 
tions, a  delight  to  the  studious  traveller  and  a  field  of 
profitable  investigation  to  all  who  are  interested  in  the 
problems  of  religion.  When  one  remembers  how  short 
a  time  has  passed  since  Commodore  Perry  broke  open 
to  Western  civilization  the  ports  of  the  Mikado's  Empire, 
and  begins  to  measure  the  progress  already  achieved, 
he  sympathizes  to  a  large  degree  with  the  pride  of  the 
Japanese  people.     There  are  those  now  living  who  have 

*  The  Right  Hon.  Joseph  Chamberlain  has  called  China  "  the  greatest 
potential  market  of  the  world." 


CONFUCIANISM  185 

passed  through  the  rapid  history  of  modern  Japan,  and 
one  of  these  has  said  that  the  experience  makes  him 
feel  preternaturally  old,  for  here  he  is  in  modern  times 
with  the  air  full  of  talk  about  Darwin,  phonographs  and 
parliamentary  institutions,  and  yet  he  himself  distinctly 
remembers  the  Middle  Ages  !  Old  things  have  passed 
away  so  rapidly  that  the  Japanese  sometimes  believe 
that  they  are  in  the  very  van  of  modern  progress. 

I  wish  to  do  full  justice  to  a  people  from  whom  I 
received  much  kindness.  Their  best  representatives 
know  well  how  to  capture  one's  heart.  Seeing  Japan 
after  a  visit  to  China,  one  feels  that  he  has  escaped 
from  the  mouth  of  hell.  The  Japanese  people  may  be 
imitative  rather  than  creative ;  it  is  true  that  they  have 
originated  but  little.  Still  they  have  had  wisdom 
enough  to  imitate  many  of  the  best  things.  China 
has  had  no  railroads  of  her  own  making  till  very  re- 
cently, and  the  one  which  Russia  is  pushing  on  toward 
the  sea  is  supposed  by  many  Chinese  to  be  the  handi- 
work of  the  devil ;  but  Japan  has  built  thousands  of 
miles  of  roads,  and  is  planning  to  gridiron  her  beautiful 
islands.  You  can  travel  with  comfort  and  something  of 
speed  in  Japan,  but  travelling  in  China,  except  on  the 
rivers,  is  practically  impossible,  except  for  the  adventu- 
rous, heroic  and  hardy  few.  Japan  has  a  great  university 
at  Tokio,  with  teachers  trained  in  the  best  German 
schools.  The  University  in  Peking  has  never  succeeded 
in  rising  to  any  high  modern  scientific  position,  and  its 
pupils  have  not  been  emancipated  from  slavery  to  the 
Chinese  classics.*  Japan  makes  her  own  war-ships, 
casts  her  own  guns,  and  drills  her  own  troops  on  Ger- 

*  Since  these  words  were  written,  the  Chinese  Government  is  re- 
ported to  have  decreed  the  building  of  a  modern,  scientific  university. 


186  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

man  methods.  She  has  a  parliament  and  parliamen- 
tary forms  of  government.  There  is  a  national  spirit 
that  pervades  the  whole  archipelago,  while  China  has 
little  or  none  of  it,  and  is  pronounced  by  some  writers 
a  congeries  of  hostile  provinces. 

Furthermore,  Japan  is  the  most  artistic  of  Eastern 
nations,  and  one  can  but  feel  drawn  out  to  a  people  who 
have  such  an  exquisite  love  of  nature,  and  who  divide 
the  seasons  between  the  cherry-blossom,  the  wistaria, 
the  lotus,  the  iris,  and  the  chrysanthemum.  There  is  a 
magnificent  cherry-tree  in  Kyoto,  the  old  capital,  so 
beautiful  and  so  much  admired  that  the  people  build 
booths  about  it,  and  last  April  I  saw  it  illumined  with 
electric  lights  and  bonfires,  and  surrounded  by  a  rejoic- 
ing multitude.  Who  can  watch  the  manufacture  of 
cloisonne  ware  in  the  workshops  of  Kyoto  without  the 
keenest  admiration  of  the  artistic  handiwork  and  the 
artistic  conceptions  of  the  Japanese  ?  These  beautiful 
things  they  have  done  for  centuries,  and  no  other  peo- 
ple can  do  some  of  them  so  well.  The  Japanese  De- 
partment in  the  Columbian  Exposition  was  a  surprise  to 
many  of  our  citizens,  and  a  Wisconsin  farmer,  who  saw 
this  exhibit  and  admired  the  beautiful  silks  and  em- 
broideries, inquired  if  the  Japanese  really  had  made 
these  things,  and  receiving  an  affirmative  response,  he 
piously  exclaimed  :  "  See  what  the  Gospel  has  done  for 
Japan ! "  Better  things  than  this,  but  not  this,  that 
Gospel  has  wrought,  though  as  yet  it  has  reached  di- 
rectly only  a  small  portion  of  her  forty-four  millions  of 
people. 

You  have  read  and  heard  many  foolishly  extravagant 
things  about  the  brave  and  ambitious  people  of  Japan. 
You  may  have  been  charmed  by  the  rose-colored  de- 


CONFUCIANISM  187 

scriptions  of  Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  abounding  in  inaccu- 
racies. But  the  Japanese  themselves  are  not  much 
pleased  with  such  fulsome  flatteries,  partly  because  the 
English  poet  does  not  flatter  them  in  the  things  of  which 
they  are  proudest.  The  Japanese  patriot  to-day  is  not 
wild  over  national  art  or  national  manners.  His  heart 
has  been  given  to  the  Japanese  army  and  navy,  and  to 
touch  and  tickle  his  vanity  in  the  spot  where  he  is  most 
sensitive,  one  must  tell  him  that  his  government  and 
his  military  forces  are  the  best  in  the  world!  The 
President  of  the  Doshisha  University  said  to  me :  "  We 
intend  to  increase  our  navy  at  enormous  cost  until  we 
shall  be  able  to  punish  Russia  for  her  selfish  interfer- 
ence with  our  victory.  We  are  ambitious  to  control  the 
China  and  the  Yellow  Seas ;  we  shall  capture  Peking 
and  gain  a  great  foothold  on  the  Continent."  I  finished 
the  prophecy  for  him,  and  said :  "  After  that,  you  will 
subdue  Russia,  and  then  Germany  and  then  Great 
Britain.  Following  these  achievements,  there  will  be 
nothing  left  except  to  conquer  the  United  States ! " 
How  extraordinary  is  the  national  conceit  is  well  illus- 
trated by  the  published  remark  of  Rev.  Mr.  Yokoi,  a 
man  of  great  intelligence,  of  noble  rank,  a  student  of 
Yale  University,  who  has  seen  much  of  European  cities. 
He  tells  us  that  our  Western  civilization,  like  that  of 
ancient  Rome,  has  come  to  a  stand-still,  and  will  sink 
into  moral  decadence  unless  it  is  saved  by  an  infusion 
of  fresh  life  from  Japan  ! 

China  has  been  a  phenomenon  of  picturesque  interest 
to  the  Western  mind  since  Sir  John  Mandeville  and 
Marco  Polo  told  their  wonderful  tales.  Professor  Albert 
Reville  believes  that  we  can  say  without  exaggeration 
that  there  are  only  two  civilizations  in  the  world — ours 


188  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

and  the  Chinese — for  lie  thinks  of  India  as  still  asleep, 
and  of  Japan  as  a  learner,  going  somewhither  and  per- 
haps not  knowing  whither  she  is  bound.  He  says  : 
"  We  find  ourselves  before  an  ancient  people  still  exist- 
ing, an  immense  nation,  who  make  nearly  one-fourth  of 
the  race  now  existing,  who  were  civilized  long  before  us, 
who  already  had  cities,  schools,  monuments,  artists, 
thinkers,  when  our  ancestors  were  still  plunged  in  the 
grossest  savagery.  This  people  has  submitted  to 
numerous  changes,  it  has  been  covered  over  by  the 
floods  of  more  than  one  barbaric  invasion,  it  has  always 
emerged,  it  has  always  survived,  and  been  always  like 
itself.  The  civilizations  whose  antiquity  rival  it,  those 
of  Egypt  and  Chaldea,  were  long  since  extinguished. 
The  Chinese  civilization  alone  has  remained  standing 
with  a  vitality,  a  tenacity,  unparalleled  in  history." 
("  La  Religion  Chinoise,"  p.  2.)  Sir  Charles  Dilke 
believes  that  the  three  great  races  of  the  future  are  the 
English,  the  Russian,  and  the  Chinese,  and  Dr.  Lawrence, 
in  his  "Modern  Missions  in  the  East,"  reports:  "The 
more  I  saw  of  this  wonderful  country,  the  more  I  was 
astonished  at  its  resources,  delighted  with  its  natural 
scenery,  awed  at  its  past,  dismayed  at  its  present,  thrilled 
with  hope  for  its  future."  These  people  have  the  plrysical 
basis  of  a  great  nationality  ;  strong  and  hardy  in  body, 
they  can  live  in  all  climates,  and,  next  to  the  English, 
they  have  become  the  great  colonizers  of  the  globe. 
They  are  flocking  into  Polynesia,  and  they  are  able  to 
redeem  the  great  tropical  islands  of  Borneo  and  Sumatra 
and  the  Philippines.  Calif  ornians  sometimes  say  :  "  We 
must  drive  them  out,  or  they  will  drive  us  out.  They 
have  all  of  our  virtues  and  none  of  our  vices."  Fleeing 
from  an  over-populated  land  (it  seems  like  a  gigantic 


CONFUCIANISM  189 

beaker  spilling  on  every  side),  the  Chinese  are  more 
ready  to  swarm  into  other  shores  than  to  receive  into 
their  own  life  what  might  prove  vitalizing,  even  if  alien 
influences. 

Protestant  missionary  wrork  struck  China  about  ninety 
years  ago.  The  spirit  of  exclusiveness,  like  her  Great 
"Wall,  was  almost  impenetrable,  but  since  the  English 
gun-boats,  in  1842,  opened  up  the  five  treaty  ports,  these 
walls  have  gradually  crumbled,  and  yet  foreign  influ- 
ences, and  especially  the  ruling  ideas  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion, have  made  but  a  feeble  impression  on  the  Man- 
darin class.  How  little  the  Chinese  Bismarck,  Li  Hung 
Chang,  has  been  able  to  accomplish  for  the  vast  mass 
of  yellowr-skinned  humanity,  is  plain  enough,  from  the 
ineffectiveness  of  China's  resistance  to  Japan.  His 
friends  think  of  him  as  a  colossal  but  pathetic  figure 
whose  hopes  have  been  dashed  to  the  ground  in  miser- 
able defeat.  He  has  been  compelled  to  fight  an  official 
conservatism  and  provincialism  which  are  almost  worse 
than  the  all-prevailing  official  corruption;  for  China 
"seems  one  huge  sponge  where  every  man  is  equally 
sure  to  be  squeezed  and  to  be  bent  on  squeezing."  But 
Li  Hung  Chang  has  been  regarded  as  too  much  of  a 
hero  in  the  West.  He  has  gained  his  ends  by  bribery 
in  a  country  where  nothing  can  be  done  without  money, 
where  political  corruption  is  universal,  where  the  people 
are  the  servants  and  victims  of  a  bureaucracy  compared 
with  which  the  worst  Common  Council  and  the  wrorst 
American  Legislature  are  models  of  integrity.  Henry 
Norman  tells  what  everybody  in  China  knows,  when  he 
writes  that  "  every  Chinese  official,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  one  in  a  thousand,  is  a  liar,  a  thief,  and  a 
tyrant."    Ho  informs  us  that  the  larger  part  of  the  sums 


190  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

subscribed  in  England  for  the  relief  of  the  famine  dis- 
tricts of  China  was  pocketed  by  Chinese  officials.  On 
one  occasion  some  turbulent  Chinese  of  Canton  attacked, 
plundered,  and  destroyed  the  houses  in  the  foreign  set- 
tlement of  Shameen,  and  for  this  the  Government  of 
China  was  compelled  to  pay  an  indemnity.  They  paid 
it,  however,  out  of  the  London  Mansion  House  Famine 
Belief  Fund !  Famine  districts  are  exempted  from  tax- 
ation, but  the  Emperor's  proclamation  to  this  effect  is 
not  posted  until  the  taxes  have  been  collected  in  full. 
No  business  can  be  carried  on  without  the  improper  use 
of  money,  and  we  are  told  that  it  cost  Li  Hung  Chang 
six  hundred  thousand  taels  to  get  permission  to  visit 
the  Empress  Dowager  after  one  of  his  recent  disgraces. 
He  himself  is  a  man  of  great  ability,  with  some  patriotic 
feeling,  and  quite  unwilling  that  China  should  be  for- 
ever in  the  rear  of  human  progress.  But  his  enormous 
riches  have  been  obtained  by  means  like  those  by  which 
old  Boman  generals  and  modern  Turkish  Pashas  plun- 
dered vast  provinces. 

General  Grant,  after  his  visit,  said  he  realized  that 
while  progress  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  might  be  that  of 
the  avalanche,  in  the  Valley  of  the  Yangtse,  it  could  only 
be  that  of  a  glacier.  The  first  impression  which  China 
makes  upon  the  stranger  is  grotesqueness.  Its  people 
are  spoken  of  as  morally  and  physically  our  antipodes. 
"  Their  compass-needle  points  south  instead  of  north, 
their  soldiers  wear  quilted  petticoats,  satin  boots,  and 
bead  necklaces,  and  go  to  a  night  attack  with  lanterns  in 
their  hands,  being  more  afraid  of  the  dark  than  of  expos- 
ing themselves  to  the  enemy.  .  .  .  Ladies  ride  in 
wheelbarrows,  and  cows  are  driven  in  carriages.  When 
a  man  furnishes  his  house,  instead  of  laying  stress,  as 


CONFUCIANISM  191 

we  do,  on  rosewood  pianos  and  carved  mahogany,  his 
first  ambition  is  for  a  handsome  camphor-wood  cofhn, 
which  he  keeps  in  the  best  place  in  his  room."  The  Chi- 
naman appears  able  even  in  his  language  to  give  a  gro- 
tesque look  or  sound  to  greatest  things,  so  that  the  Latin 
word  for  God,  which  in  the  Portuguese  is  Deos,  has 
been  turned  into  "  Joss."  And  yet  it  is  easy  to  make 
out  a  great  story  for  the  Chinese,  and  to  say  that  they 
were  acquainted  with  the  circulation  of  the  blood  before 
Harvey,  and  inoculated  for  small-pox  nine  hundred 
years  before  Jenner ;  that  they  invented  the  printing- 
press  long  before  Gutenberg,  and  that  through  them  the 
mariner's  compass  and  gunpowder  were  made  known  to 
Europe.  "  Gradually  you  discover,"  as  Dr.  Lawrence 
has  said,  "  that  back  of  these  strange  phenomena — for 
a  Chinaman  is  a  phenomenon — there  are  strange  laws 
and  forces  at  work,  moulding  all  these  elements  to  uni- 
form results.  Wonder  grows  into  amazement,  curiosity 
to  awe,  when  you  leam  that  this  is  in  many  respects  the 
most  remarkable  civilization  the  world  has  known.  Its 
antiquity  seems  like  that  of  the  eternal  hills.  The  be- 
ginnings are  lost  in  the  darkness  of  early  Accadian  and 
Egyptian  days.  It  saw  the  empires  of  the  ancient  world 
blaze  up  in  all  their  brief  brilliancy — Babylonia,  Assy- 
ria, Persia,  Greece,  Rome  ;  Israel  saw  them  die  out  and 
pass  into  oblivion,  but  it  went  its  way  unchanged.  '  And 
while  the  Britons  still  wore  skins,  the  Chinese  wore 
silks.'" 

In  China  we  behold  a  government  based  on  education 
and  the  family,  we  see  political  institutions  built  on 
literature,  for  the  aristocracy  is  the  literary  class.  We 
gaze  in  wonder  at  a  nation  which  is  itself  gazing  into 
antiquity  and  feeding  itself  exclusively  on  the  wisdom 


192  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

which  has  been  handed  down  to  it.  The  religion  of 
this  people  in  all  of  its  forms  appears  to  be  without  as- 
piration. It  knows  not  the  ever-living  and  loving  God. 
Its  peculiarity  has  been  correctly  defined  as  regressive- 
ness.  Its  most  general  form  of  worship  is  the  worship 
of  ancestors;  the  spirits  of  the  past  rule  this  nation 
from  their  urns.  The  dead  are  the  sceptred  sovereigns. 
The  Chinese  mind  appears  to  have  this  constitutional 
tendency.  It  drinks  ever  at  the  ancestral  fountains, 
and  no  other  people  are  so  devoted  to  the  printed  word. 
Endless  imitation,  as  with  Wordsworth's  child,  is  the 
whole  vocation  of  this  nation  of  boys,  imitation  without 
improvement.  They  do  what  they  are  told  to  do  ;  they 
copy  what  is  set  before  them  without  eliminating  de- 
fects. They  might  burn  down  houses  to  roast  pigs, 
according  to  Charles  Lamb's  fancy.  The  most  remark- 
able recent  illustration  of  this,  with  which  I  am  familiar, 
occurred  during  the  Parliament  of  Religions,  in  the  case 
of  the  Chinese  Secretary,  the  honorable  Pung  Quang 
Yu,  the  rotund,  big-headed,  and  ever-smiling  represent- 
ative of  the  Celestial  Empire.  He  was  a  man  of  very 
capacious  mind,  as  may  be  discovered  from  his  treatise 
on  Confucianism  which  was  read  at  that  meeting,  and 
in  which,  an  American  scholar  has  said,  there  is  more  to 
show  what  is  going  on  in  the  brains  of  the  educated  Con- 
fucian, than  in  anything  of  the  same  length  he  ever  read. 
I  had  invited  him  to  respond  for  China  to  the  addresses 
of  welcome  on  the  opening  day,  that  day  when  the  rep- 
resentatives of  so  many  empires,  nationalities,  and  re- 
ligions spoke  their  words  of  kindness,  and  when  thou- 
sands of  hearts  were  filled  with  a  noble  enthusiasm. 
Mr.  Pung  accepted  the  invitation,  but  requested  that  I 
give  him  an  outline  of  what  would  be  appropriate  at 


CONFUCIANISM  193 

such  a  time.  The  proprieties  are  all-important  with 
this  people.  He  sent  me  word  through  his  secretary 
that  he  was  not  acquainted  with  our  usages  and  there- 
fore desired  my  assistance.  Thereupon  I  dictated  per- 
haps two  hundred  words  to  my  secretary,  giving  what 
seemed  to  me  to  be  appropriate  in  order  to  direct  the 
honorable  Chinese  Secretary's  mind  into  the  right  chan- 
nels. When  this  Imperial  Commissioner  from  China 
rose,  on  the  afternoon  of  September  11,  1893,  he  was 
greeted  with  such  manifestations  of  welcome  and  honor 
as  came  to  no  other  speaker  on  the  platform.  Men  and 
women  sprang  to  their  feet  and  there  was  wild  waving 
of  hats  and  handkerchiefs.  Mr.  Pung's  secretary  stood 
by  him,  and  began  to  read  the  address,  since  Mr.  Pung's 
knowledge  of  English  was  very  limited.  This  secretary, 
Mr.  Kwai,  is  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  but,  unlike  Mr. 
Chauncey  M.  Depew  and  most  other  graduates  of  that 
institution,  he  could  not  make  himself  heard !  The 
eager  thousands  called  out  my  name,  and  commanded 
me  to  read  what  they  were  so  hungry  to  hear.  As  I 
took  the  paper  from  Mr.  Kwai's  hand,  I  found  to  my 
sad  surprise  that  it  was  precisely  the  same  sheet  of 
paper  which  had  come  from  the  fingers  of  my  own  type- 
writer, without  a  single  modification  !  As  I  read  my 
own  words,  the  people  cheered  and  Mr.  Pung  bowed 
low.  They  kept  on  cheering,  as  they  listened  to  the 
noble  Christian  sentiments  which  came  from  the  heart 
of  this  Confucian  representative  of  the  greatest  of  em- 
pires !  When  I  had  finished,  the  applause  broke  forth 
again,  and  Mr.  Pung  bowed  and  bowed  his  gracious 
thanks.  Imagine  my  feelings  as  I  read  afterward  in  the 
Christian  journals  of  our  land  such  words  as  these  : 

"  The  noble  sentiments  spoken  by  Mr.  Pung  at  the  Par- 
13 


194  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

liament  of  Religions  mark  an  era  in  the  progress  of  hu- 
manit}^.  Such  friendly  and  magnanimous  words  indi- 
cate that  China  has  been  touched  by  the  Christian 
spirit,  and  is  fast  coming  out  into  the  brotherhood  of 
nations."  But  I  have  every  reason  to  think  that  Mr. 
Pung's  opening  address  at  the  Parliament  expressed  his 
real  sentiments,  and  his  closing  address,  seventeen  days 
later,  couched  in  similar  language  and  expressing  simi- 
lar ideas,  was  his  own,  and  I  must  humbly  say  was  an 
improvement  on  his  first  speech ! 

The  religions  of  China — Confucianism,  Taoism,  and 
Buddhism — coexist  without  destroying  each  other,  and 
appear  to  occupy  different  sections  of  the  Chinese  mind, 
and  to  address  themselves  to  different  parts  of  human 
nature.  Confucianism  was  more  a  morality  than  a  relig- 
ion. It  may  have  known  God,  but  did  not  honor  Him 
as  God.  No  worship  of  Him  by  the  people  was  per- 
mitted, and  it  was  only  by  the  Emperor,  acting  repre- 
sentatively for  the  nation,  that  the  King  of  Heaven  was 
adored.  It  was  this  defect  in  Confucianism  which 
opened  the  way  for  the  idolatries  and  the  polytheism 
which  came  in  with  the  Buddhists. 

"  The  most  holy  ancient  sage,  Kong-Foo-Tsze,"  or  in 
the  Latinized  form  which  the  Jesuits  gave  to  this  word, 
Confucius,  who  is  eulogized  on  the  gates  of  China  with 
such  inscriptions  as  this  :  "  The  Teacher  and  Example 
for  ten  thousand  generations,"  was  born  in  Loo,  a  part 
of  what  is  now  the  province  of  Shan-tung,  in  the  year 
551  B.C.,  and  he  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-three,  that  is 
in  the  year  478  B.C.  Unlike  Buddha,  he  is  no  demi-god, 
whose  biography  consists  chiefly  of  fables.  "  No  char- 
acter in  history  is  less  mythological  than  his."  He  be- 
longs to  the  earth,  and  has  never  been  caught  up  into 


CONFUCIANISM  195 

the  seventh  heaven  of  grotesque  oriental  fancy.  To 
know  this  man  is  to  know  China.  "  In  his  voice,"  it 
has  been  said,  "  as  through  one  of  Nature's  cunningly 
constructed  shells,  we  still  hear  the  multitudinous  throb- 
biDgs  of  a  sea  of  four  hundred  millions  of  human  be- 
ings. To  this  day,  when  a  Chinaman  wishes  to  pay  the 
highest  possible  compliment  to  the  greatest  benefactor 
he  has  ever  had,  or  the  best  person  he  has  ever  known, 
he  can  go  no  further  than  say,  '  That  man  is  almost  as 
good  as  Confucius.'  "  (Grant,  "  Religions  of  the  World," 
p.  45.)  It  was  in  the  sixth  century  before  the  Christian 
era  that  Confucius  appeared,  the  century  of  iEschylus 
and  Pythagoras  in  Greece,  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  in 
Palestine,  and  of  Gautama  Buddha  in  India.  China 
consisted  of  different  races  and  states,  with  different 
languages  and  laws,  endlessly  waging  wTar.  Confucius 
was  a  sort  of  intellectual  King  Alfred,  who  began  to 
bring  order  out  of  confusion.  His  father  was  a  distin- 
guished military  officer  of  high  lineage,  and  Confucius 
was  the  son  of  his  second  wife.  The  Chinese  sage  grew 
wise  early  ;  he  married  at  the  age  of  nineteen  and  mar- 
ried unhappily  ;  becoming  an  instructor  of  inquiring 
young  men,  he  grew  to  be  famous,  and  his  pupils  were 
numbered  by  the  thousands,  many  of  them  superior 
minds.  Finding  the  land  distracted,  he  undertook  its  ref- 
ormation ;  he  studied  and  later  annotated  the  old  books. 
It  was  his  purpose  to  seek  after  and  secure  a  peaceful 
and  stable  society,  and  with  this  end  he  careful ty  studied 
the  laws  of  human  nature.  He  thought  that  he  had  found 
in  "  reciprocity  "  the  key  to  all  proper  rules  of  conduct. 
Putting  his  principles  to  the  test,  not  without  success, 
he  became  the  favorite  teacher  at  the  court  of  Chow. 
Visiting  the  capital  to  see  its  temple  and  palace,  and  to 


196  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

study  the  ceremonies  of  the  Court,  he  became  acquaint- 
ed with  the  philosopher  Lao-tse,  the  Keeper  of  the 
Archives.  The  older,  and  in  some  things  greater,  sage 
had  little  respect  for  the  younger,  not  believing  that 
humanity  could  be  reformed  by  rules  and  laws.  In  the 
opinion  of  Lao-tse  reformation  must  go  deeper,  and 
the  way  of  life  must  find  an  asylum  in  the  bottom  of 
the  heart.  The  older  philosopher  was,  of  course,  right, 
but  he  had  not  himself  discovered  the  better  way.  The 
fame  of  Confucius  spread,  his  merits  were  widely  recog- 
nized, he  was  appointed  by  the  Duke  the  chief  magis- 
trate of  a  town,  and  then,  as  the  Minister  of  Crime,  he 
was  permitted  to  carry  out  his  ideas,  and  his  theories 
were  found  to  work  well.  Protection  to  property  was 
increased,  and  crime  almost  disappeared.  A  reaction 
came,  however ;  the  prosperity  of  his  province  excited 
jealousy  in  other  provinces,  and  successful  efforts  were 
made  to  alienate  the  Duke's  heart  from  the  sage  and 
moralist  who  had  proved  himself  a  statesman. 

In  his  fifty-sixth  year  Confucius  resigned  his  offices 
and  for  thirteen  years  he  wandered  as  an  exile  from  his 
own  country.  Received  by  different  Courts  with  dis- 
tinction, he  was  not  intrusted  with  power.  He  would 
not  compromise  his  theories  to  please  the  great,  al- 
though he  occasionally  failed  to  be  true  to  his  principles 
in  personal  life.  I  think  we  must  deem  him  wiser  than 
Lao-tse  from  the  fact  that  he  was  not  pessimistic,  and 
would  do  something,  would  attempt  the  best  possible.- 
He  carefully  edited  the  ancient  classics,  and  his  disciples 
compiled  from  notes  of  his  conversation  the  Analects, 
which  every  Chinese  official  to-day  must  master.  The 
literary  monument  which  he  has  left  is  certainly  unpar- 
alleled.    The  idea  of  Confucius  that  social  order  is  the 


CONFUCIANISM  197 

one  thing  needful  still  pervades  China.  Like  Bismarck, 
lie  was  a  nationalist ;  be  knew  and  believed  in  the  his- 
tory of  his  own  people,  and  he  was  probably  the  greatest 
conservative  of  all  times.  His  services  to  China  were 
unspeakable,  and  though  he  had  no  sufficient  gospel 
wherewith  to  reform  the  individual,  he  made  the  most 
successful  effort  ever  attempted  in  Asia  to  reach  and 
mould  the  general  organization.  "  His  end  was  not  un- 
impressive, but  it  was  melancholy.  He  sank  behind  a 
cloud.  Disappointed  hopes  made  his  soul  bitter.  The 
great  ones  of  the  Empire  had  not  received  his  teachings. 
No  wife  nor  child  was  by  to  do  the  kindly  offices  of  af- 
fection for  him.  Nor  were  the  expectations  of  another 
life  present  with  him  as  he  passed  through  the  dark 
valley.  He  uttered  no  prayer  and  he  betrayed  no  ap- 
prehensions. Deep-treasured  in  his  own  heart  may 
have  been  the  thought  that  he  had  endeavored  to  serve 
his  generation  by  the  will  of  God,  but  he  gave  no  sign. 
'  The  mountain  falling  came  to  naught,  and  the  rock 
was  removed  out  of  his  place.  So  death  prevailed 
against  him  and  he  passed ;  his  countenance  was 
changed,  and  he  was  sent  away. ' '  (Legge,  "  Life  and 
Teachings  of  Confucius,"  p.  88.) 

Mingled  with  Confucianism  in  China  to-day  is  a  sys- 
tem called  Taoism,  which  takes  its  name  from  Tao,  the 
Way,  a  system  associated  with  the  philosopher  partly 
contemporary  with  Confucius,  to  whom  I  have  already 
referred,  a  philosopher  who  had  a  deeper  insight  into 
the  beauty  of  virtue  than  his  more  famous  rival,  and 
who  even  taught  the  New  Testament  precept  "  Recom- 
pense evil  with  good,"  a  maxim  which  Confucius  could 
not  accept.  Lao-tse  meditated  in  a  more  philosophical 
mood  on  the  spiritual  needs  and  capacities  of  the  soul, 


198  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

and  the  practical  Confucius  did  not  comprehend  him. 
"  His  speculations  recorded  in  the  Tao-te-King  have 
but  few  points  of  contact,"  as  De  la  Saussaye  has  said, 
"  with  popular  Taoism.  The  hidden  sage  and  his  shape- 
less teaching  have  remained  without  great  influence  on 
China."  When  he  passed  away,  "  the  popular  super- 
stitions that  had  been  growing  up  among  the  masses  for 
two  thousand  years,  attached  themselves  to  his  name, 
and  Taoism  then  degenerated  into  a  compound  of 
charms,  incantations,  magical  arts,  and  elixirs,  to  pro- 
pitiate supernatural  beings,  and  into  a  gross  idolatry 
that  often  amounts  to  Shamanism  or  demon  worship." 
(Grant,  "  Keligions  of  the  World,"  p.  70.)  "  Confucius  is 
occupied  with  the  problem  of  social  well-being ;  Lao- 
tse  is  concerned  only  with  the  peace  of  the  individual. 
Confucius  is  inspired  by  the  pride  of  empire.  Lao-tse 
is  desirous  above  all  things  to  sink  into  humility — not 
the  humility  of  thinking  lowly  of  one's  self,  but  the 
humility  of  not  thinking  at  all."  (Mathison,  "Distinc- 
tive Messages  of  the  Old  Keligions,"  p.  73.)  "  Let  him 
go  back  to  the  life  of  the  vegetable,  which  lives  without 
knowing  that  it  lives,  and  grows  without  considering  its 
growth.  Let  him  become  spontaneous,  uncalculating, 
aimless ;  let  him  cease  to  map  out  a  plan  for  his  earthly 
life  or  a  means  for  his  daily  bread.  His  course  is 
mapped  out  already  in  a  fixed  and  unalterable  way." 
But  some  of  the  things  lacking,  both  in  Confucianism 
and  Taoism,  were  supplied  by  Buddhism.  The  early 
Buddhist  missionaries  pleased  the  Chinese  mind  with 
splendid  pictures  of  far-away  worlds,  flooded  with  light, 
brilliant  with  flowers,  rich  with  precious  stones,  and  in- 
habited by  Buddhas  and  angels,  and  in  this  way  the  Chi- 
nese were  led  into  idolatry.    While  the  Christian  apostles 


CONFUCIANISM  199 

were  preaching  in  the  Roman  Empire  of  a  God  in  Christ, 
reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  Buddhism  entered 
China  from  India.  In  obedience  to  a  dream  the  Em- 
peror had  sent  ambassadors  to  the  West  to  bring  back  a 
god,  and  they  returned  with  an  image  of  Buddha,  and, 
shortly  after,  the  preaching  monks  from  the  banks  of 
the  Ganges  came  to  the  court  of  China  to  propagate 
their  faith.  Buddhism  was  acknowledged  officially  as 
a  religion  in  a.d.  65.  To-day,  those  who  have  rank 
and  property  in  China  usually  join  with  the  literary 
classes  in  professing,  at  least,  to  despise  all  religions  ex- 
cept that  of  Confucius.  There  has  always  been  a  want 
of  cohesion  between  the  multitudes  who  may  be  ad- 
herents of  Buddha  and  Tao  and  the  literary  rulers  who 
proudly  assert  that  they  have  never  worshipped  images. 
Buddhism  and  Taoism,  however,  even  though  they  may 
be  stigmatized  as  heterodox,  have  secret  adherents,  even 
in  the  official  classes,  or  open  adherents  seeking  that  in- 
tercourse with  the  spiritual  world  which  Confucius  did 
not  give  them.  Speaking  of  the  early  spread  of  Buddh- 
ism, Dr.  Edkins  has  said  of  Gautama  that  "  His  re- 
mains were  universally  revered  as  eminently  sacred,  and 
worthy  of  religious  adoration.  A  hair,  a  tooth,  a  piece 
of  bone,  a  particle  of  hair  in  a  transformed  state,  were 
preserved  in  temples,  or  had  costly  tombs  erected  over 
them,  or  near  them.  This  was  the  origin  of  the  pagodas 
in  China.  A  pagoda  is  an  ornamental  tomb,  erected 
over  the  remains  of  a  Buddhist  priest,  or  intended  for 
the  safe-keeping  of  holy  relics."  (Edkins,  "Religion  in 
China,"  p.  10.) 

But  to  know  China,  to  understand  what  are  the  char- 
acteristics of  her  people  and  civilization,  we  must  know 
Confucianism  and  Confucius.     I  cannot  agree  with  Dr. 


200  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Legge,  who,  after  his  long  study  of  the  character  and 
opinions  of  the  Chinese  sage,  refused  to  regard  him  as  a 
great  man,  because  Confucius  threw  no  new  light  on  any 
questions  which  had  a  world-wide  interest,  gave  no  im- 
pulse to  religion,  and  had  no  sympathy  with  progress.  I 
have  been  taught  by  Emerson  to  regard  him  as  great 
who  represents  in  himself  a  great  people,  who  absorbs 
and  remoulds  what  may  belong  to  an  age  or  a  race. 
And,  surely,  if  to  exert  a  wide  and  lasting  influence  is  a 
test  of  greatness,  Confucius  must  have  been  one  of  the 
chief  minds  of  the  race.  This  sage  who  devoted  his 
whole  life  to  the  moral  elevation  of  his  people  was  far 
from  faultless.  Acts  of  insincerity  are  recorded  of  him, 
and  Dr.  Legge  is  right  in  holding  that  these  may  be  a 
legitimate  result  of  his  failure  to  recognize  the  true  God, 
and  to  lend  to  morality  the  sanction  of  religion.  Con- 
fucius did  not  over-estimate  himself ;  he  regarded  his 
work  as  that  of  a  transmitter  and  not  of  a  maker.  "  I 
am  not  one  who  is  born  in  the  possession  of  knowledge, 
I  am  one  who  is  fond  of  antiquity  and  is  earnest  in 
seeking  it  there.  In  letters  I  am,  perhaps,  equal  to 
other  men ;  but  the  character  of  the  superior  man,  car- 
rying out  in  his  conduct  what  he  professes,  is  what  I 
have  not  yet  attained  to."  Confucius  was  wise  with  the 
wisdom  of  prudence,  and  reverence  for  the  past,  and  who 
shall  say  that  Western  Christendom  may  not  learn  of 
him  ?  He  wrote  :  "  The  love  of  humanity,  not  tem- 
pered with  the  love  of  study,  is  blind  as  to  its  foolish- 
ness ;  the  love  of  knowledge,  not  tempered  with  the  love 
of  study,  is  blind  as  to  its  capriciousness ;  the  love  of 
truth,  not  tempered  with  the  love  of  study,  is  blind  as  to 
its  mischievousness  ;  the  love  of  courage,  not  tempered 
with  the  love  of  study,  is  blind  as  to  its  rebelliousness ; 


CONFUCIANISM  201 

tlie  love  of  firmness,  not  tempered  with  the  love  of  study, 
is  blind  as  to  its  venturesomeness." 

Confucius  has  moulded  China,  and  his  name  is  more 
revered  by  the  educated  classes  than  any  other,  human 
or  divine.  His  thoughts  are  familiar  to  every  official, 
and  his  character  is  more  or  less  reproduced  by  those  in 
authority.  The  magistrates  of  China  are  versed  in  all 
that  is  recorded  of  the  sage,  and  in  the  literature  which 
he  preserved.  "  A  people  who  have  ceased  to  worship 
God,  worship  him.  His  descendants  are  the  only  he- 
reditary nobility  in  the  land ;  their  honors,  pensions, 
and  privileges  have  been  respected  in  all  the  revolu- 
tions that  have  swept  over  China  since  his  day."  "  In 
many  school-rooms  there  is  a  tablet  or  inscription 
on  the  wall,  sacred  to  the  sage,  and  every  pupil  is  re- 
quired, on  coming  to  school  on  the  morning  of  the  first 
and  fifteenth  of  every  month,  to  bow  before  it  the  first 
thing,  as  an  act  of  worship."  (Legge,  "  Life  and  Teach- 
ings of  Confucius,"  p.  94.)  At  the  vernal  and  autumnal 
equinoxes,  oxen  and  sheep  are  slain  as  sacrifices  to 
Confucius.  "  There  are  more  than  sixteen  hundred 
temples  erected  to  his  memory,  one  of  them  occupying 
ten  acres  of  land." 

The  ethics  which  Confucius  made  the  practical  relig- 
ion of  China  are  imbued  with  the  idea  that  our  nature 
is  a  system  wherein  reason  and  conscience  are  supreme, 
and  that  to  fight  against  its  laws  is  to  rebel  against  the 
heavenly  order.  De  la  Saussaye  describes  the  founda- 
tion of  Chinese  life  and  religion  as  reverence  for  the 
"order  of  nature,  of  the  state,  and  of  the  family." 
"  Filial  piety,  which  consisted  in  first  submitting  one's 
self  to  parents,  then  to  rulers,  and  in  forming  one's 
character,  is  only  another  name  for  this  fundamental 


202  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

virtue."  To  attain  the  Confucian  ideal,  one  must  rightly 
observe  the  great  social  relations.  These  five  natural 
relations  are  those  of  sovereign  and  subject,  husband 
aud  wife,  parent  and  child,  elder  and  younger  brother, 
friend  and  friend.  Confucius  was  once  asked  if  there 
was  one  word  which  would  serve  as  a  rule  of  conduct 
for  all  life,  and  he  replied,  "  Is  not  reciprocity  such  a 
word  ?  What  do  you  not  want  done  to  yourself,  do  not 
do  to  others."  Reciprocity  has  rightly  been  called  the 
characteristic  word  of  the  Confucian  system,  and  a  word 
more  easily  explained  than  the  Tao,  which  is  the  key  to 
the  teachings  of  Lao-tse.  The  Golden  Rule  in  its  nega- 
tive form  is  announced  by  Confucius  two  or  three  times. 
And  we  cannot  help  rendering  a  tribute  of  admiration 
to  the  man  who,  while  others  may  have  been  pessimistic, 
dared  to  undertake  the  regeneration  and  perpetuation  of 
an  empire  by  a  code  of  morals.  The  corner-stone  of  his 
edifice  was,  of  course,  filial  piety,  and  when  we  remem- 
ber the  unexampled  and  marvellous  national  longevity 
of  China,  we  cannot  forget  the  command  and  the  prom- 
ise given  on  Sinai :  "  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother, 
that  thy  days  may  be  long  upon  the  land  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  giveth  thee."  In  fairness  it  ought  to  be  said 
that  filial  piety  has  become  a  one-sided  and  distorted 
virtue  with  the  Chinese.  And  one  missionary  reports 
"  that  he  never  quoted  Paul's  words  to  the  Corinthian 
Church,  '  the  children  ought  not  to  lay  up  for  the  par- 
ents, but  the  parents  for  the  children,'  without  encoun- 
tering a  storm  of  opposition.  And  when  I  tried  to  show 
that  the  sentiment  was  favorable  to  the  progress  of  so- 
ciety and  would  make  each  generation  to  start  from  a 
higher  stand-point,  I  found  it  difficult  to  obtain  hearing." 
(Grant,  p.  76.)     Mr.  Pung  told  us  at  the  Parliament  that 


CONFUCIANISM  203 

the  chief  reason  why  the  Chinese  people  as  a  whole  look 
upon  Christian  converts  in  China  as  an  element  less  de- 
sirable than  Buddhists,  Taoists,  and  Mohammedans  is 
because  Buddhists,  Taoists,  and  Mohammedans  make 
no  scruple  in  paying  due  homage  to  their  parents  and 
in  offering  sacrifices  to  their  ancestors,  and  Moham- 
medans still  have  so  much  respect  for  public  opinion  as 
to  enforce  the  separation  of  the  sexes  wherever  they  go. 
From  the  writings  of  Confucius  there  was  evolved  in 
time  and  through  successive  sages  a  Confucian  philoso- 
phy, the  real  fashioner  of  which  was  a  great  mind  in  the 
thirteenth  century  of  our  era.  That  philosophy  to-day 
is  pervaded  by  these  elements.  "  First,  that  example  is 
omnipotent ;  secondly,  that  to  secure  the  safety  of  the 
empire  you  must  secure  the  happiness  of  the  people ; 
thirdly,  that  by  solitary  persistent  thought  one  may 
penetrate  at  last  to  the  knowledge  of  the  essence  of 
things  ;  fourthly,  that  the  object  of  all  government  is  to 
make  the  people  virtuous  and  contented."  (Clarke, 
"  Ten  Great  Religions,"  p.  53.)  Confucius  was  a  moralist 
and  an  imperialist.  Filial  piety  was  to  be  the  basis  of 
patriarchal  institutions  which  were  centred  in  the  em- 
peror, whose  virtues  were  to  his  thought  irresistible. 
"  If  his  desire  be  for  what  is  good,  the  people  will  be 
good,  as  grass  bends  before  the  wind ;  if  he  is  not  cov- 
etous, they  will  not  even  be  hired  to  steal ;  if  he  loves 
right,  they  will  obey  without  orders."  (Johnson,  "Ori- 
ental Religions,"  p.  609.)  The  monarchical  principle  has 
never  been  more  glorified  than  by  the  sage  of  China.  It 
has  been  said  that  Hillel,  Shammai,  and  their  disciples, 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  of  our  Lord's  day,  were  not 
more  fully  persuaded  that  men  could  be  made  virtuous 
by  law.     This  faith  of  his  was  criticised  in  his  own  time. 


204  TEE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

"  You  think,"  lie  was  in  effect  told,  "  that  men  can  be 
reformed  by  the  imposition  of  laws,  forms,  and  ceremo- 
nies, and  by  holding  up  for  their  imitation  the  good  ex- 
amples of  the  ancient  worthies.  That  shows  what  a 
superficial  knowledge  of  the  human  nature  you  have. 
Why,  the  more  you  multiply  laws,  the  more  ingen- 
ious will  men  become  in  evading  them.  Besides,  you 
do  not  dream  that  the  living  will  walk  forever  in  the 
footsteps  of  the  dead.  A  temporary  success  will  be  lit- 
tle more  than  a  cloak  over  deceit  and  corruption,  and, 
after  a  time,  wickedness  will  burst  out  more  violently 
than  ever."  These  were  altogether  new  points  of  view 
for  Confucius.  But  law  with  him  meant  education  and 
moral  discipline,  and  it  is  difficult  to  escape  the  convic- 
tion that  practical  Confucianism  would  lead  to  some 
improvement  in  the  homes,  schools,  and  politics  of 
Western  Christendom.  Let  a  missionary  really  master 
a  philosophy,  like  the  Confucian,  and,  as  one  Dr.  Ellin- 
wood  has  written,  "  he  will  better  illustrate  the  Christian 
grace  of  humility  and  be  so  much  the  better  prepared 
for  his  work."  (Ellinwood,  "  Oriental  Religions,"  p.  13.) 
The  wisdom  of  Providence  appears  to  have  ordained 
that  certain  nations  should  work  out  certain  ideas  and 
follow  certain  ideals  up  to  the  time  when  all  shall  be 
gathered  into  a  cosmopolitan  but  various  unity  through 
the  fulness  of  power  and  truth  in  Jesus  Christ.  We 
have  not  seriously  put  into  practice  very  much  of  the 
truth  that  is  in  Him,  and  China  may  teach  us  yet  some 
lessons.  "  To  Confucius  society  was  the  great  reality. 
Civilization,  with  its  material  splendor,  social  order,  and 
settled  government,  was  an  unspeakable  blessing.  For 
its  preservation  he  trusted  mainly  to  the  combined  influ- 
ences of  education,  example,  and  rigid  ceremonial ;  and 


CONFUCIANISM  205 

to  him  it  is  chiefly  owing  that  the  educational  system 
of  China  is  so  wonderfully  complete."  (Grant,  p.  66.) 
"  All  the  world  knows  that  the  Chinese  have  a  system 
of  morality  which  in  theory  is  remarkably  pure.  They 
may  not  be  a  peculiarly  moral  people  compared  with 
the  rest  of  mankind,  but  they  have  a  better  system  of 
human  duty  than  almost  any  other  heathen  nation,  an- 
cient or  modern."  (Edkins,  "  Religion  in  China,"  p.  117.) 
"  There  is  only  one  recognized  portal  of  office  in  China, 
and  that  is  the  examination  hall.  Consequently  the  ad- 
ministration is  not  in  the  hands  of  demagogues,  nor  of 
persons  selected  more  or  less  according  to  the  accident 
of  birth  or  by  haphazard  methods,  but  of  men  who  have 
proved  their  fitness  by  submitting  to  the  severe  tests  of 
successive  examinations.  In  no  other  country,  accord- 
ingly, is  education  so  highly  valued." 

But  Confucianism  does  not  provide  for  all  the  needs 
of  human  nature.  The  Chinese  have  no  clear,  sure 
knowledge  of  God.  And  what  we  would  deem  religious 
ideas,  exercise  but  little  influence  over  the  national 
mind.  It  is  common  to  hear  the  Chinese  say  that  the 
heavens  shall  be  worshipped  only  by  the  Emperor  in 
the  name  of  the  nation,  and  that  the  God  of  Heaven  is 
too  majestic  for  a  common  man  to  approach  Him  as  a 
worshipper.  Confucius  said  :  "  We  cannot  as  yet  per- 
form our  duties  to  men ;  how  can  we  perform  our  duties 
to  spirits  ?  We  know  not  as  yet  about  life ;  how  can  we 
know  about  death  ?  "  "  My  prayers  were  offered  up 
long  ago."  As  religion  in  India  largely  means  observ- 
ance of  caste,  so  in  China  filial  piety  has  largely  ab- 
sorbed every  other  form  of  piety.  "  A  man  may  believe 
what  he  likes,  may  practise  what  religious  observances 
he  likes,  but  he  is  not  allowed  to  dishonor  his  parents 


206  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

while  they  live,  and  still  less  when  they  are  dead.  The 
state  strictly  enjoins  filial  piety  on  all,  and  public  sen- 
timent insists  upon  the  observance  of  what  is  enjoined." 
Theoretically,  the  Emperor,  who  is  at  the  head  of  the 
state,  and  has  almost  absolute  control,  is  the  father,  as 
well  as  the  king,  of  the  people.  "  If  he  is  the  greatest 
man  of  the  state,  he  is  also  the  most  burdened — strictly 
speaking,  the  only  burdened  man.  If  a  sacrifice  has  to 
be  presented  to  heaven,  it  is  the  Emperor  alone  who 
presents  it.  It  is  not  that  the  Emperor  alone  is  allowed 
to  have  his  sins  forgiven ;  it  is  rather  that  all  the  sins 
are  sins  of  the  Emperor.  He  alone  sacrifices,  because 
only  he  has  been  the  transgressor."  (Mathison,  "  Dis- 
tinctive Messages  of  the  Old  Eeligions,"p.  70.)  But  in  a 
nation  where  "  power,  masculine  power,  arbitrary  power, 
has  become  from  the  very  outset  the  symbol  and  the  goal 
of  the  life  of  home,"  "  instead  of  the  kingdom  being 
built  on  the  model  of  a  household,  the  household  has 
been  constructed  after  the  model  of  a  kingdom.  In 
such  a  society,  by  the  very  nature  of  the  case  woman  can 
have  no  ruling  sphere  "  (p.  89).  We  are  not  amazed  then 
to  discover  that  where  the  root  idea  is  arbitrary  power, 
the  tree  of  Chinese  civilization  has  become  synonymous 
with  tyranny  and  corrupt  oppression.  To-day  Chinese 
officials  claim  that  they  have  a  right  to  govern  the 
people  in  their  own  horrible  and  brutal  way,  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Candlin,  of  Tien  Tsin,  one  of  the  sweetest  and 
greatest  spirits  among  modern  missionaries,  than  whom 
China  has  no  better  friend,  has  told  us  how  all  political 
rights  have  been  withheld  by  the  Chinese  officials ;  with 
what  cool  indifference  they  see  their  subjects  the  victims 
of  famine,  of  pestilence,  of  flood,  of  drought ;  how  they 
have  studied  only  the  art  of  riding  safely  on  the  back 


CONFUCIANISM  207 

of  this  great,  dumb,  blinded  monster,  the  nation,  and 
fattening  on  the  luxuries  they  have  taught  the  starving 
creatures  to  procure  for  them.  Patriarchal  government 
has  been  a  failure.  It  has  been  described  as  the  reign 
of  a  father  distinctively,  that  is  to  say,  as  distinguished 
from  the  reign  of  a  mother.  "  Wherever  such  a  society 
prevails  there  is  one  uniform  result  ;  instead  of  mon- 
archy being  lost  in  fatherhood,  fatherhood  is  lost  in 
monarchy  "  (p.  85).  The  rules  of  Confucius  were  adapted 
to  a  primitive  society,  to  small  principalities ;  and  his 
views,  as  Dr.  Legge  has  said,  "  want  the  comprehension 
which  would  make  them  of  much  service  in  a  great  em- 
pire. 

Furthermore,  China  was  his  world,  and  there  is  no 
provision  made  for  the  intercourse  of  his  nation  with 
other  peoples.  China  was  all  "  under  heaven."  ';  The 
Chinese  national  spirit  deliberately  placed  itself  in  di- 
rect hostility  to  the  introduction  of  foreign  customs  and 
ideas.  The  great  wall  that  forms  the  northern  boundary 
of  the  Empire  is  the  emphatic  emblem  of  this  national 
exclusiveness.  It  is  so,  as  much  in  its  failure  to  attain 
its  object,  as  in  the  idea  of  its  original  construction. 
Several  times  a  Tartar  race  has  broken  through  that 
ineffectual  barrier,  and  conquered  the  country  it  was  in- 
tended to  defend."  (Edkins,  "  Eeligion  in  China,"  p.  1.) 
It  is  not  a  hopeful  and  brilliant  picture  of  Chinese  so- 
ciety which  the  Christian  Chinese  minister,  Rev.  Y.  K. 
Yen,  sent  to  the  Parliament  of  Religions :  "  Take  busi- 
ness. Large  corporations  are  impossible,  for  lack  of 
mutual  confidence.  They  have  been  lately  attempted, 
in  large  numbers ;  but,  with  few  exceptions,  have  col- 
lapsed through  the  corruption  of  directors  or  cashiers. 
Why  is  it  that  the  Government  obtains  its  loans  through 


208  TUB  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

foreign  banks,  and  not  directly  from  the  people  ?  Why- 
is  it  that  hongs,  stores,  and  shops  find  their  greatest  dif- 
ficulty with  the  book-keepers  ?  Why  is  it  that  nearly 
every  man  owes  money  to  somebody  ?  Why  is  it  that 
to  give  the  lie  to  another  is  no  offence?  Cruelty  is 
everywhere.  Torture  prevails  in  the  administration  of 
justice.  There  is  hard- hear tedness  in  families,  in 
schools,  in  workshops,  and  especially  in  the  treatment 
of  girls  bought  for  domestic  services,  or  for  impure  pur- 
poses, and  of  those  adopted  into  families  as  future  wives 
for  the  sons."  ("  History  of  the  Parliament  of  Relig- 
ions,"  p.  1311.)  We  all  know  that  China  is  the  paradise 
of  cruelty  and  conservatism,  that  its  rulers  are  mad'y 
afraid  of  change  and  are  callous  to  all  misery  excepting 
their  own.  The  Rev.  Arthur  Smith  has  told  us  why 
the  horrible  public  highways  in  North  China  are  never 
repaired,  so  that  it  is  a  proverb  that  an  old  road  be- 
comes a  river,  which  in  the  summer  rains  is  literally 
the  case.  When  the  American  missionary  asks  the 
farmer  to  repair  the  road  over  against  his  own  house, 
he  refuses  on  the  ground  that  the  track  is  no  more  his 
to  use  than  that  of  others  ;  he  has  no  time  to  waste  on 
such  work ;  that  is  to  say,  he  is  unwilling  to  confer  a 
benefit  on  others  even  though  he  reaps  a  greater  one 
himself.  China  evidently  needs  the  positive  form  of 
the  Golden  Rule. 

And  what  an  immense  relief  to  human  misery  would 
spring  from  the  reception  of  the  Christly  beatitude, 
"  Blessed  are  the  merciful !  "  Nearly  everybody  knows 
of  the  pitiless  and  shocking  custom  of  footbinding,  a 
barbarous  and  abominable  affliction  on  many  millions 
of  Chinese  girls,  who  are  continually  weeping  and 
wringing   their   hands   under   the  cruel   torture.     The 


CONFUCIANISM  209 

Christian  women  of  China  have  enlisted  in  a  crusade  to 
release  the  victims  from  the  thraldom  of  this  needless 
suffering.  Not  all  of  the  Chinese  are  insensible  to 
physical  torture,  though  multitudes  among  them  are  ap- 
parently indifferent.  "  In  those  terrible  massacres  of 
hundreds  at  a  time,  which  they  call  executions,  the 
most  cruel  pains  and  the  ghastliest  anticipations  seldom 
extort  a  murmur  or  a  groan.  The  readiness  with  which 
whole  multitudes  resort  to  suicide,  rather  than  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy  or  survive  defeat  and  disgrace, 
shows  what  insensibility  to  fears  or  sufferings  this 
force  of  endurance  can  attain."  (Johnson,  "  Oriental 
Religions,"  p.  39.)  "  The  approbation  of  suicide  under 
depressing  circumstances  in  China  may  be  said  to 
amount  to  enthusiasm.  Pagodas  are  erected  to  the 
*  beautiful  suicide  of  love.'  Honorary  tablets  are  fre- 
quent to  widows  who  have  betaken  themselves  to  their 
lost  husbands.  So  fashionable  became  such  suicides, 
that  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century  an  imperial 
edict  forbade  this  public  reward  "  (p.  40). 

We  speak  of  this  oldest  of  existing  nations  as  the  type 
of  conservatism,  and  yet  the  nineteenth  century  has 
struck  at  the  gates  of  China  and  we  behold  a  process  of 
change.  Great  features  may  remain  unmodified,  but  all 
is  not  stagnation.  Even  without  Christianity  there 
would  have  been  some  modification  and  movement. 
Dr.  Faber  has  contrasted  the  China  of  to-day  with  the 
China  of  the  sixth  century  before  Christ.  He  imagined 
Confucius  and  Mencius  making  a  short  visit  to  the  Mid- 
dle Kingdom,  and  when  Mencius  congratulated  his  mas- 
ter on  the  success  of  his  teachings,  that  master  found 
much   to  distress  him.     He  learned  that  his  doctrine 

had  been  propagated  by  war,  that  temples  were  erected 
14 


210  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

to  gods  he  had  never  heard  of,  that  multitudes  lived  in 
famine-stricken  poverty  and  were  debased  by  opium- 
smoking  and  gambling,  that  money  given  to  the  poor 
found  its  way  into  the  pockets  of  silk-robed  misman- 
agers.  They  were  both  distressed  by  the  distorted  feet 
of  the  women,  and  the  queues  of  the  men.  They  were 
troubled  by  the  sacrifices  offered  at  graves,  and  the  wor- 
ship paid  to  the  genii  of  good  luck.  Confucius  was  dis- 
tressed by  the  thousands  of  books  which  he  discovered 
on  the  book-shelves  of  the  stores,  and  recalled  the  time 
when  he  cleared  the  ancient  literature  of  thousands  of 
useless  books,  retaining  only  a  few  that  were  worthy  to 
be  transmitted  to  other  ages.  He  was  distressed  by 
the  arches  erected  in  honor  of  famous  women,  most  of 
whom  had  committed  suicide,  or  who  had  cut  flesh  from 
their  bodies  as  medicine  for  sick  parents.  They  dis- 
proved of  the  sanction  given  to  alien  religions  and  were 
shocked  by  the  worship  of  animals,  the  dragon  festival, 
by  infanticide,  and  a  hundred  corruptions.  And  when 
they  saw  the  progress  of  the  West,  the  railroads  and 
the  steam-engines,  and  steamboats — "  Oh,  my  little  chil- 
dren," said  Confucius,  "  all  ye  who  honor  my  name,  the 
people  of  the  West  are  in  advance  of  you,  as  the  an- 
cients were  in  advance  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  There- 
fore, learn  what  they  have  of  good,  and  correct  their 
evil  by  what  you  have  better.  This  is  my  meaning  for 
the  great  principle  of  reciprocity." 

One  strong  blow  after  another  has  fallen  upon  the 
Celestial  Empire,  and  its  immemorial  stolidity  and  ex- 
clusiveness.  What  more  remarkable  event  in  recent 
history  than  the  Taeping  insurrection,  whose  leader  ap- 
pears to  have  gotten  his  inspiration  from  the  Bible,  who 
took  lessons  of  a  Christian  missionary,  who  studied 


CONFUCIANISM  211 

Christian  books,  and  organized  a  society  of  God-wor- 
shippers !  What  was  at  first  a  religious,  soon  became  a 
political,  movement,  and  then  an  insurrection  against 
bad  government ;  it  abandoned  idolatry  and  announced 
that,  if  it  succeeded,  the  Bible  was  to  take  the  place  of 
Confucius  in  examinations  for  office.  It  had  some  of 
the  aspects  of  a  Puritan  revolt.  By  it  the  Tartar  Dy- 
nasty would  have  been  expelled,  but  it  was  put  down  by 
British  troops,  not,  however,  until  after  half  a  million 
insurgents  had  been  killed. 

I  am  one  of  those  who  are  looking  out  for  points  of 
contact  between  Christianity  and  the  faiths  which  it  must 
ultimately  displace  by  fulfilling  all  their  best  ideals  and 
aspirations.  Christianity  finds  in  China  reverence  for 
the  past,  but  it  adds  to  it  hope  for  the  future.  It  finds 
in  China  faith  in  man,  it  adds  to  it  faith  in  God.  It 
finds  in  China  a  spirit  of  commonplace  and  practical 
devotion  to  the  affairs  of  earth,  it  adds  to  it  enthusiasm 
and  the  hope  of  heaven.  Who  shall  say  that  Confucius 
has  not  rightly  been  described  as  a  star  in  the  East, 
who  will  ultimately  lead  his  people  to  Christ  ?  One  of 
the  most  authentic  of  his  sayings  is  this  :  "  In  the  West 
the  true  Saint  must  be  looked  for  and  found."  Dr. 
Mathison  has  analyzed  with  much  clearness  and  ex- 
pounded with  much  force  the  universal  spirit  and  habit 
in  the  Celestial  Empire  of  regarding  the  present  with 
dissatisfaction  and  of  looking  toward  the  past  as  the 
desirable  and  the  ideal  state  of  society.  Ancestral  wor- 
ship is  explained  by  this  spirit  and  habit.  The  doctrine 
of  Lao-tse  is  thus  explained,  for  he  proposed  in  effect 
that  man  should  retrace  his  steps  in  the  life  of  the 
plant.  China  regards  modern  society  as  a  departure 
from  primitive  simplicity  and   excellence.     It  has  no 


212  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

hope  from  the  increase  of  civilization  and  the  develop- 
ment of  culture.  Progress  is  decline.  The  disciples  of 
Confucius  are  out  of  sympathy  with  that  watchword 
which  is  the  key  to  the  history  of  Judaism  and  Christi- 
anity :  "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go 
forward."  Now  Christianity  must  have  in  it,  if  it  is  to 
meet  the  wants  of  such  a  people,  something  which  cor- 
responds with  their  fundamental  idea,  and  is  it  not  this 
declaration  that  "  in  order  to  inherit  the  kingdom,  the 
man  must  become  a  child?  "  "  The  initial  command  of 
Christianity  is  the  command  to  go  back.  The  Christian 
soldier  receives  at  the  outset  the  order  to  retreat.  The 
distinctive  motto  of  this  faith  is  the  preliminary  neces- 
sity of  regress  :  '  Except  ye  be  turned  back  and  become 
as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.'  In  these  words  there  is  a  thoroughly 
Chinese  ring — a  more  distinctly  Chinese  ring  than  that 
which  is  supposed  to  reverberate  in  Christ's  Golden 
Rule."  (Mathison,  "  Distinctive  Messages  of  Old  Relig- 
ions," p.  77.)  "  Now  this  cry  is  precisely  what  Christian- 
ity professes  to  meet  and  satisfy.  Its  power  over  the 
moral  life  lies  mainly  in  the  fact  that  it  claims  to  lead 
back  that  life  to  a  fresh  starting-point,  or,  to  use  its 
own  words,  '  to  pure  fountains  of  living  water  ' "  (p.  79). 
"  The  Christian  goes  back  in  order  that  he  may  come 
forward ;  the  Chinaman  goes  back  that  he  may  rest 
under  primeval  shadows ;  the  Christian's  paradise  is  al- 
ways in  the  future ;  the  Chinaman's  always  in  the  past  " 
(p.  83).  "  Other  systems  might  offer  him  incentives  to 
moral  reformation  ;  other  creeds  might  inspire  him  with 
motives  to  abstain  from  old  views  ;  Christianity  alone 
presents  the  hope  of  a  buried  past,  the  prospect  of  be- 
coming a  new  creature  by  starting  afresh  and  unencum- 


CONFUCIANISM  213 

bered,  with  the  heart  of  a  little  child  and  with  a  heredity 
as  pure  as  heaven  "  (p.  81). 

I  do  not  find  in  Confucianism  either  of  what  the 
Bishop  of  Ripon  has  called  the  three  permanent  ele- 
ments of  religion — dependence,  fellowship  and  progress. 
The  God  ward  side  of  human  nature  is  not  provided  for 
adequately.  Fellowship  is  artificial  and  restricted,  and 
true  progress  made  nearly  impossible,  for  progress  be- 
longs to  people  "  who  believe  that  the  God  that  inspired 
holy  men  of  old  inspires  men  still,  who  believe  that  He 
is  a  living  God  and  the  God  of  the  living."  Christian- 
ity found  its  way  through  Nestorian  missionaries  into 
China  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  and,  after  a 
rapid  extension  of  its  conquests,  it  declined  and  disap- 
peared, not,  however,  from  any  want  of  zeal  in  the  first 
missionaries.  Has  Christianity  in  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury entered  the  Chinese  Empire  to  remain  and  be  vic- 
torious? I  find  every  reason  to  hope  that  the  fifty 
thousand  Protestant  converts  of  to-day  will  yet  be  mul- 
tiplied into  millions,  but  Christendom  must  become 
wiser  and  worthier  before  its  conquests  are  rapid. 
Principal  Grant  has  well  said  :  "  No  man  is  fitted  to 
present  the  Gospel  to  the  Chinese  till  he  has  become 
a  Chinaman,  as  Paul  became  a  Greek,  a  barbarian,  or  a 
Jew.  Injustice  done  to  their  nation  by  nations  of 
Christendom  ;  high-handed  treatment  of  their  kindred 
when  they  come  to  our  shores,  contempt  for  their  cus- 
toms— these  things  will  only  provoke  retaliation,  which 
will  be  all  the  more  severe  the  longer  it  may  be  de- 
layed "  (p.  77).  And  he  adds  :  "  How  shall  we  commend 
Christianity  to  the  Chinese?  China  will  not  be  satis- 
fied with  a  religion  less  historical  than  that  of  Confu- 
cius, or  less  suited  to  her  traditions  and  to  her  social 


214  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

and  political  ideals,  but,  at  the  same  time,  she  needs  a 
religion  that  reveals  the  Eternal,  presents  higher  ideals 
of  life,  and  inspires  permanent  motives  to  virtue  and 
holiness.  Religion  must  be,  in  every  soul  and  in  every 
nation,  *  a  well  of  water,  springing  up  into  everlast- 
ing life '  "  (p.  77).  The  Chinese  secretary  who  spoke 
at  the  Parliament  of  Religions  said  of  that  American 
scholar,  Dr.  William  A.  P.  Martin,  so  long  at  the  head 
of  the  Imperial  University  at  Peking,  that  he  "  is  the 
only  missionary  living  that  is  accustomed  to  inter- 
change visits  with  dukes,  marquises,  and  eminent  states- 
men, and  to  mingle  with  scholars  and  officials  on  terms 
of  perfect  equality.  Since  Schall's  time  he  is  the  only 
missionary  that  has  enjoyed  this  unique  distinction. 
On  this  account  all  Confucianists  hold  him  in  great  re- 
spect. The  best  thing  missionaries  can  do  is  to  follow 
such  a  worthy  example."  ("  History  of  the  Parliament 
of  Religions,"  p.  437.)  And  Mr.  Pung  adds  :  "  At  the 
present  time  there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  na- 
tions of  the  earth  to  draw  closer  to  each  other  in  peace 
and  amity.  If  the  Pope  and  the  Propaganda,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  Protestant  Missionary  Societies,  on  the 
other,  really  desire  to  confer  some  lasting  benefits  upon 
the  people  of  China,  as  well  as  to  show  the  love  they 
bear  Christ,  I  beg  to  suggest  that  such  men  be  se- 
lected for  missionary  work  in  China  as  shall  combine 
with  their  religious  qualifications  a  proficiency  in  other  ^ 
branches  of  human  knowledge,  such  as  sociology,  philos- 
ophy, political  economy,  natural  science,  chemistry,  in- 
ternational law,  astronomy,  geology,  mathematics,  and 
the  like."  ("  History  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions,"  p. 
436.)  The  Rev.  Gilbert  Reed,  and  other  missionaries, 
working  among  the  educated  classes,  sympathize  with 


CONFUCIANISM  215 

these  views  of  the  Chinese  official,  for  they  know  that 
in  China  the  urns  of  empire  have  always  been  fixed  near 
the  abodes  of  science  and  scholarship. 

But  a  bookish  people  may  be  very  conceited,  ex- 
tremely narrow,  and  violently  hostile  to  improvement. 
It  is  only  by  force  that  Western  civilization  has  made 
any  entrance  into  China,  and  the  mightiest  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  progress  is  the  universal  superstition  in  re- 
gard to  the  brutality  and  cruelty  of  all  foreigners.  It  is 
a  common  belief  that  Chinese  wives  and  children  are 
chopped  up  by  foreign  doctors  to  make  medicine  out  of 
their  bones  and  eyes.  The  Chinese  hate,  despise  and 
fear  all  foreigners.  They  believe  that  Europeans  can 
cast  spells  over  them  and  spoil  their  health  and  cause 
the  plague  to  pass  by  the  Englishman's  house,  as  it 
always  does,  and  to  rest  upon  the  house  of  the  China- 
man. It  has  been  truly  said  that  "  no  African  savage  is 
more  ground  down  by  fetich  than  is  the  Chinaman  by 
superstition." 

The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  must  enter  the  hearts  of 
these  people  and  fill  them  with  nobler  aspirations  and 
a  diviner  discontent  before  they  will  ever  be  willing  to 
believe  in  real  goodness  and  humanity,  and  before  they 
will  be  ready  to  leave  the  filthy  conditions  in  which  all 
Chinese  life  is  lived  in  Chinese  cities.  I  had  a  half 
hour's  stroll  into  Shanghai — I  mean  the  native  part — 
away  from  the  admirable  settlements  of  the  English  and 
Americans.  In  all  of  my  experience  of  humanity  I  have 
seen  nothing  so  foul,  so  degrading,  so  unutterably  filthy 
as  this  Chinese  quarter,  and  one  would  think,  as  clos- 
ing his  nostrils  and  hurrying  back  to  the  precincts  of 
civilization  and  decency,  that  even  Chinese  conceit 
would  be  shamed  and  shocked,  and  would  see  in  the 


216  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

approach  and  influence  of  the  European  and  American 
the  transforming  touch  of  something  higher  and  better. 
And  there  can  be  no  more  decisive  evidence  of  the  fail- 
ure of  Buddhism  to  make  men  humane  than  the  hor- 
rors of  Chinese  punishments  in  courts  of  justice.  Exe- 
cutions are  terrible  massacres ;  tortures  are  constantly 
practised  which  would  almost  shame  the  Spanish  In- 
quisition. It  has  been  said  there  is  enough  legal  cru- 
elty in  Canton  to  glut  the  Duke  of  Alva  or  a  General 
Weyler.  And  the  people  gather  to  enjoy  the  tortures  of 
those  who  are  flogged  with  the  bamboo  in  ways  which  I 
will  not  harrow  your  sensibilities  by  describing.  Wade 
through  the  blood  of  the  legal  shambles  in  Canton,  and 
you  will  realize  what  a  jest  it  is  to  speak  of  the  human- 
ities of  Buddhism  as  illustrated  in  China. 

I  have  heard  and  read  much  criticism  of  the  work  of 
Protestant  missionaries  in  the  Celestial  Empire,  but  it 
is  evident  that  the  worst  which  can  be  said  against  them 
can  be  said  also  against  the  representatives  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Great  Britain  and  America.  They  are  not 
united ;  they  are  not  all  of  them  thoroughly  educated, 
and  they  might  accomplish  a  better  work  if  there  were 
more  union  and  greater  wisdom  among  them.  But  this 
is  not  a  very  severe  indictment  and  does  not  distinguish 
Christian  work  in  China  from  Christian  work  in  London 
or  Chicago,  and  when  we  are  told  that  the  Chinese  hate 
these  representatives  of  our  faith,  the  critic  forgets  that 
the  hostility  is  to  all  foreigners,  and  that  the  mission- 
aries have  more  friends  than  the  merchants.  I  know  of 
one  case  of  an  American  missionary  who,  when  he  left 
his  work  in  Peking  a  few  months  ago  for  a  much-needed 
furlough  in  America,  was  accompanied  on  his  way  by 
faithful  and  weeping  Chinese  friends,  who  felt  that  they 


CONFUCIANISM  217 

were  losing  a  spiritual  father,  and  I  am  assured  by  mis- 
sionaries that  when  the  Gospel  does  get  hold  of  the  heart 
of  a  Chinese,  it  makes  a  man  of  him.  In  spite  of  the 
universal  corruption  of  Chinese  officials,  the  Chinese 
clerks  who  have  been  trained  in  honest  English  methods 
prove  to  be  trustworthy  men,  and  it  was  with  surprise 
that  I  learned  and  saw  that  in  the  leading  banks  of 
Japan,  Chinese,  rather  than  Japanese,  clerks  are  em- 
ployed. 

A  main  reason  for  the  intense  antipathy  on  the  part 
of  this  great  people  to  the  adoption  of  Christianity,  has 
been  the  introduction  of  opium  by  foreign  merchants 
and  a  Christian  government.  Why  should  we  wonder 
at  the  ill-name  which  this  abominable  traffic,  which  in- 
jures the  moral  character  of  individuals,  dissipates  their 
wealth,  robs  them  of  self-government,  renders  them  in- 
dolent and  sensual,  and  sends  them  through  wretched- 
ness to  an  early  grave,  has  given  to  Christian  nations  ? 
We  make  it  altogether  too  hard  for  men  to  fall  in  love 
with  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  And  yet  some  of 
the  noblest  examples  of  Christian  faith  and  consecra- 
tion are  found  among  this  people  in  whose  hands  lies  in 
large  measure  the  future  of  Asia.  Christ  only  can  unify 
and  pacify  and  purify  that  vast  aggregate  of  humanity 
which  Confucius  stamped  with  his  moral  impress. 
What  he  left  undone,  Christianity  must  accomplish. 
What  he  partially  grasped  and  embodied,  Christianity 
must  illustrate  and  fulfil.  Above  all,  China  needs  the 
upward  look  and  the  vision  of  the  true  King  of  Heaven, 
"  Our  Father,"  whose  Spirit  and  truth  and  love  were  re- 
vealed in  the  Christ.  The  nation  which  has  practised 
the  fifth  commandment  must  not  omit  the  first.  After 
all,  the  controlling  and  shaping  thought  of  mankind  is 


218  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

the  thought  of  God.     It  is  of  greater  moment  what  men 
think  of  superior  than  of  inferior  things.     That  which 
is  from  above  is  master.     The  thought  which  dominates 
other  thoughts  concerns  the  supreme  King  of  Heaven, 
whom  the  individual  soul  needs  to  know  as  a  personal 
and  loving  Father.     A  wise  man  can  tell  the  outline, 
the  external  manifestation,  and  the  direction  of  every  in- 
dividual life,  provided  first  he  knows  that  individual's 
conception  of  God,  and  so,  from  this  knowledge  he  can 
tell  the  character  of  national  life  in  the  different  forms 
furnished  us  by  Hinduism,  Buddhism,  Confucianism, 
and  Islam.     This  central   thought  of   the  human  soul 
radiates  outward,  like  the  lights  from  sun,  moon  and 
candle,  into  the  far  and  minute  crevices  of  life,  and  the 
wise  man  is  both  spectroscope  and  photometer ;  that  is, 
he  pronounces  upon  the  kind  of  light,  whether  solar, 
lunar  or  earth-born,  and  he  measures  its  intensity  and 
degree.     The  little  light  which  China  has  had  from  the 
heavens  has  been  lunar,  while  most  of  its  illumination 
has  been  from  the  earth.     Supreme  wisdom  will  tell 
from  the  ordering  of  the  human  household,  from  the 
conduct  of  business,  from  the  glance  of  the  eye,  from 
the  tone  of  the  voice  what  men  worship  as  supreme ; 
and  how  strong  or  weak,  how  constant  or  capricious,  is 
that  worship.     If  human  wisdom  were  superangelic  in 
its  vision,  it  might  discover  men's  thoughts  of  God  from 
the  particles  of  their  blood  and  the  beatings  of  their 
heart ;  for  thought  controls  all  things,  the  infinitesimal 
as  well  as  the  infinite.     Break  to  smallest  fragments  the 
six-or  eight-sided  crystal,  and  each  fragment  possesses 
every  quality  or  power  of  the  original  jewel.     And  so 
men's  thoughts  of   God  rule  in   every  movement  and 
manifestation   of    their  complex  lives.     When   China 


CONFUCIANISM  219 

learns  to  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer,  when  she  lifts  her 
eyes  to  Our  Father  in  Heaven,  she  will  learn  to  say 
"  Thy  Kingdom  Come,"  and  find  it  broader  than  her 
own  immense  domain  and  more  blessed  than  anything 
of  which  Confucius  dreamed,  meditating  on  the  sages 
of  old. 

The  foremost  duty  of  the  Western  world  is  to  give  a 
knowledge  of  the  true  God,  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ, 
to  China,  the  greatest  nationality  of  the  Eastern  world. 
The  obstacles  to  the  progress  of  Christianity  in  the 
Celestial  Empire  are  almost  insurmountable.  The 
Chinese  language  is  one  of  infinite  difficulty.  The 
Chinese  prejudice  is  almost  invincible.  Every  form  of 
error  is  deeply  lodged  in  the  Chinese  mind.  Every 
vice  is  ubiquitous.  Dishonesty  and  impurity  are  om- 
nipresent. Womanhood  is  enslaved.  Science  is  un- 
known, and  the  stubbornness  of  opposition  to  Christian 
ideas  is  that  of  adamant.  But  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Chinese  material,  when  Christianized,  is  of  the  best. 
The  sufferings  of  China  are  a  constant  appeal  to  what- 
ever exists  among  us  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  the  spirit 
of  humanity,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  many  of 
the  Chinese  leaders  have  turned  their  thoughts,  since 
the  Japanese  war,  to  the  great  West,  clothed  in  whose 
panoply  Japan  conquered.  From  the  highest  official 
classes  men  are  stepping  forth  and  saying  to  the  West- 
ern world  :  "  Come  over  and  help  us."  Rev.  Timothy 
Richard,  of  Shanghai,  was  requested  by  eminent  officials 
at  Peking  to  secure  from  leaders  of  Western  thought 
their  wisest  suggestions  as  to  what  China  needs  for  her 
regeneration.  And  it  was  my  privilege  to  secure  from 
American  statesmen  and  scholars  a  number  of  important 
communications,   which   have  been  submitted   to  the 


220  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Chinese  Government.  Russia,  Germany  and  France 
are  determined,  it  would  sometimes  seem,  on  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  most  ancient  of  empires.  And, 
while  we  cannot  doubt  that  this  attempted  dismember- 
ment, if  successful,  might  be  an  ultimate  gain  to  the 
race,  we  know  perfectly  well  that,  like  the  crimes  of 
England  in  India,  and  like  the  forcing  of  the  opium 
trade  into  China,  it  will  be  one  of  the  horrible  stains 
upon  Christendom  which  ages  will  not  rub  off ;  it  will 
be  one  of  the  obstacles  not  easily  overcome  to  the  rapid 
advance  of  the  Kingdom  of  Truth,  Brotherhood  and 
Love.  Centuries  of  moral  warfare,  untold  energies  of 
spiritual  devotion,  the  sacrifice  of  countless  lives  gladly 
given  to  the  ministry  of  Christ  in  the  Celestial  Empire 
— all  this  will  be  in  the  future.  The  conversion  of 
China  will  be  no  holiday  task,  and  the  consummation 
will  be  delayed  until  Christendom  itself  has  been  Chris- 
tianized. 

In  his  great  address  at  the  Parliament  of  Religions 
on  Christian,  or,  rather,  Religious  Unity  in  its  bear- 
ing on  the  work  of  Missions,  Mr.  Candlin  gave  us  a 
parable  from  the  political  history  of  China,  a  parable 
whose  lessons  are  for  us,  as  well  as  for  the  men  of  that 
Empire,  a  parable  which  teaches  that  the  reunion  of 
Christendom  must  precede  the  conversion  of  mankind. 
He  told  us  of  the  great  and  ancient  China  which  has  re- 
mained slightly  affected  by  the  changes  that  have  con- 
vulsed the  outer  world.  In  reality,  however,  that  Empire 
has  frequently  been  a  loose  aggregation  of  petty  king- 
doms and  different  languages,  waging  with  one  another 
remorseless  and  cruel  war.  And  yet,  she  has  given  the 
world  a  phenomenon  unique  in  history.  Other  nations 
have  fallen  and  been  broken,  never  to  rise  again,  but 


CONFUCIANISM  221 

China,  rent  and  torn  at  times,  at  the  next  turn  of  the  wheel 
of  destiny  coalesces  and  stands  impregnable,  the  most 
populous  and  the  most  homogeneous  nation  on  earth  ; 
and  the  secret  of  this  strange  power,  he  said,  "  has  been 
an  ideal."  Down  the  long  line  of  her  rulers,  through 
every  change  of  her  dynasties,  the  ideal  given  by  Con- 
fucianism, the  ideal  of  the  united  and  peaceful  Empire, 
"  to  pacify  all  under  heaven,"  was  never  for  a  moment 
lost  sight  of.  This  has  been  the  star  of  her  darkest 
night.  ("  History  of  the  Parliament  of  Religions,"  pp. 
1190-91.) 

Like  that  is  the  infinitely  greater  ideal  of  Christian- 
ity. In  a  holier  and  more  blessed  sense,  it  aspires  to 
give  peace  to  all  under  heaven,  but  the  peace  which 
Christ  gives  is  more  than  external  order.  It  comes 
from  rest  of  conscience  and  intimate  communion  through 
a  living  Saviour  with  a  Father  God,  and  the  world  which 
is  to  be  pacified  runs  all  round  the  Equator,  and  stretches 
out  to  both  the  poles.  It  is  our  shame,  our  deep  and 
undying  shame,  that  this  programme  is  unaccomplished. 
It  is  our  shame,  "if  in  our  littleness  or  narrowness,  or 
love  of  forms  and  theologies  and  ecclesiasticisms  and 
rituals,  the  great  ideal  itself  should  be  lost,  which  angels 
sang  that  night  when  the  starry  spaces  were  glad  and 
did  not  know  how  to  hold  their  exultation,  because  they 
divined  where  the  message  came  from  :  'Peace  on  earth, 
good- will  toward  men.' " 


CHAPTEK  VIII 

SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC    MISSIONS;    AMERICA'S    RESPONSIBILITY 

TO  THE  ORIENT 

The  Christian  religion  is  inherently  expansive,  and 
the  idea  of  a  world-wide  conquest  entered  its  heart  and 
brain  from  the  very  beginning.  The  strongest  argu- 
ment for  the  truth  of  Christianity  which  I  could  bring 
to  bear  upon  many  Hindu  minds  was  this  :  its  essen- 
tial universality,  not  only  because  of  its  adaptation  to 
all  men,  and  its  claims  upon  all,  but  from  its  present 
world-wide  extension ;  an  argument  which  Christian 
missions  in  the  nineteenth  century  have  put  into  our 
hands.  I  have  returned  home  from  a  voyage  round  the 
world  with  a  new  and  deeper  sense  of  the  Gospel's  uni- 
versal efficacy,  after  hearing  the  old  Christian  hymns 
sung  in  Arabic  and  Marathi,  in  Hindu  and  Kanarase,  in 
Tamil  and  Bengali,  and  in  the  languages  of  China  and 
Japan.  Many  a  time  in  the  early  morning  hours  the 
voices  of  little  children  carrying  old  tunes  in  strange 
tongues  have  floated  to  our  ears  across  the  Mission 
Compound  of  some  city  in  the  Punjab,  or  on  the  spicy 
and  surf-beaten  shores  of  Ceylon,  and  my  heart  beat 
faster  as  I  realized  the  oneness  of  Christian  hope  and 
faith  and  love  in  the  breasts  of  all  disciples,  and  as  I 
felt  anew  the  sweet  glory  of  that  Gospel  which  it  is 
your  work  and  mine  to  carry  to  all  those  whom  God 
loves  and  for  whom  the  Saviour  died. 

222 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  223 

A  few  years  ago  there  came  to  me  in  the  providence  of 
God  a  deep  invincible  feeling  that  it  was  my  mission  to 
preach  Christ,  not  only  in  America,  but  also  in  the  Far 
East.  It  was  the  larger  Christ  which  I  was  moved  and 
inspired  to  preach,  the  Christ  who  has  not  forgotten 
nor  forsaken  any  part  of  the  world ;  the  Christ  who  has 
illumined  in  some  measure  all  hearts,  but  who  blazes 
forth  in  redemptive  disclosure  from  Bethlehem's  cradle, 
from  the  Galilean  Mount  of  Teaching,  from  the  Tree  of 
Life  on  Calvary,  from  the  opening  Heavens,  from  the 
Eternal  Throne,  and  from  the  Pentecostal  fires  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  which  gleam  and  flash  wherever  the  his- 
toric Christ  is  faithfully  and  lovingly  presented.  And 
now  that  I  have  finished  the  work  to  which  I  was  com- 
missioned, now  that  I  have  been  permitted  to  cany  the 
Christian  message  to  the  schools  of  India  and  Japan,  I 
shall  be  glad  if  any  word  of  mine  shall  help,  however 
slightly,  that  sure  and  swift-coming  revival  of  enthusi- 
asm in  America  for  the  missionary  cause,  which,  in  its 
origin,  character  and  purpose,  Dr.  Wayland  rightly 
deemed  the  sublimest  that  ever  awakened  the  hopes 
and  called  forth  the  moral  energies  of  mankind. 

I  find,  and  you  also  find,  among  some  people  in  our 
own  country,  a  scepticism  with  regard  to  the  wisdom 
and  success  of  all  Christian  effort  in  Asia,  an  unbelief 
springing  sometimes  out  of  a  lack  of  knowledge  of  the 
real  results  of  Christian  missions,  and  occasionally  from 
the  feeling  that  Christianity  has  nothing  supremely  im- 
portant to  give  to  the  followers  of  Buddha  Mohammed 
and  Confucius,  and  to  those  whom  it  is  supposed  have 
been  trained  in  the  great  philosophies  of  India.  It  is  very 
common  for  travellers  and  naval  officers  to  circulate  the 
report  that  they  have  found  nothing  to  praise  and  much 


224  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

to  condemn  in  the  work  of  the  missionaries.  Such 
critics  might  learn  something  from  the  testimonies  of 
great  British  statesmen  in  India,  one  of  whom,  Sir  Alex- 
ander McKenzie,  Governor-General  of  Bengal,  a  strong 
friend  of  missions,  said  to  me  that  he  looked  forward  to 
the  time  wben  there  would  be  a  national  turning  of  the 
people  of  India  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ ;  when  the  work 
already  begun  should  go  forward  rapidly  under  the 
leadership  of  native  Christian  prophets.  These  critics 
of  missions  might  learn  much  from  Colonel  Denby,  for 
twelve  years  our  efficient  Minister  at  Peking,  or  from 
Consul-General  Jernigan  of  Shanghai,  or  even  from  the 
Indian  Social  Reformer,  a  non-Christian  paper  published 
in  Madras,  which  has  recently  said  that  "  if  you  wish  to 
find  examples  of  the  noblest  benevolence,  you  must  go 
to  Christianity  and  not  to  Hinduism,"  and  has  also  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  that  "  the  highest  types  of  Chris- 
tian character  yet  evolved  by  our  race  were  found  among 
some  of  the  Christian  missionaries  of  India." 

It  might  be  well,  however,  to  put  to  these  critics  a 
few  questions.  Will  you  give  to  us  the  names  of  a  score 
out  of  the  thousands  of  Christian  missionaries  in  the 
Orient  whom  you  came  to  know  personally,  and  to 
know  so  well  that  you  could  form  an  accurate  judgment 
of  them  and  of  their  work  ?  And  then,  since  the  mis- 
sionaries are  doing  such  a  vast  variety  of  things  to  help 
the  bodies  and  souls  of  men,  will  you  tell  us  what  work 
you  found  ineffective  or  harmful  ?  Do  you  disapprove 
of  the  translation  of  the  Bible,  the  writing  of  Christian 
literatures,  the  teaching  of  children  in  schools,  of  young 
men  in  colleges,  the  preaching  in  the  street,  the  visiting 
of  women  in  their  homes,  the  work  of  the  dispensary,  or 
the  work  of  the  hospital  ?     If  you  know  not  one  mis- 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  225 

sionary  personally,  if  you  have  never  studied  the  various 
forms  of  work  with  your  own  eyes,  where  did  you  get 
your  opinions?  Did  you  get  them  from  the  not-over- 
moral  European  populations  in  the  corrupt  port-towns 
of  Japan,  China,  and  India  ?  Are  you  reflecting  the  hos- 
tility of  unworthy  representatives  of  Christian  nations 
who  are  doing  so  much  to  hinder  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  Orient  ?  Is  it  becoming  in  anyone  to  en- 
deavor to  break  down  the  work  of  men  and  women  who, 
leaving  their  own  country  from  love  of  Christ  and  love 
of  humanity,  are,  at  any  rate,  striving  to  enlighten,  up- 
lift, and  save  their  fellow-men  ?  Those  who  mislead 
American  travellers  in  the  Orient  would  be  equally  out 
of  sympathy  with  earnest  and  aggressive  Christian  work 
carried  on  here  in  our  American  cities. 

I  have  seen  enough  of  Christian  evangelism  in  Asia 
to  fill  me  with  joyful  hope.  I  never  met  a  missionary 
in  India  or  Japan  who  was  doubtful  about  the  final  re- 
sult. And  I  have  seen  enough  of  the  practical  workings 
of  Hinduism,  Buddhism,  and  Islam  to  crystallize  into 
adamantine  firmness  my  previous  strong  conviction  of 
their  futility  to  give  the  soul  peace  with  God,  to  remove 
the  weight  of  guilt  and  grief,  to  lay  the  foundations  of 
a  vigorous  individual  and  national  morality,  and  to 
brighten  earth  with  the  light  of  a  blessed  immortality. 
My  conviction  of  the  universal  need  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  was  not  lessened  but  greatly  augmented  by  the 
observations  made  of  the  present  condition  of  Japan, 
the  one  non-Christian  nation  that  can  be  called  pro- 
gressive. 

The  conclusions  which  I  reached  in  regard  to  this 

most  interesting  of  Oriental  countries,  reflect,  I  believe, 

the  judgments  of  those  careful  Western  and  Christian 
15 


226  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

students  who  have  the  most  thorough  acquaintance  with 
the  facts.  I  believe  that,  while  the  Japanese  are  the 
most  intelligent  and  progressive  people  in  the  Asiatic 
world,  and  that  while  Japan  already  possesses  some  of 
the  material  and  intellectual  forces  of  civilization,  she  is 
not  yet  strong  in  the  moral  elements.  The  people  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  a  conscience,  outside  of  a  very 
limited  circle  of  civil  and  patriotic  duties.  There  are 
elements  of  good-nature  and  of  kindness  about  them 
which  mislead  the  superficial  and  hasty  observer. 
Those  who  have  lived  with  them  for  many  years  tell  you 
that  lying  and  dishonesty  of  all  kinds  are  frightfully 
prevalent,  and  that  the  sins  of  the  flesh  are  practically 
universal.  The  Christian  idea  of  purity  of  heart  and 
life  is  almost  unknown ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that 
many  Europeans  who  live  among  them  (I,  of  course, 
except  all  earnest  Christians),  very  speedily  fall  into  the 
common  fleshly  sins  which,  with  the  Japanese,  are  not 
sins  at  all.  Except  in  the  cities  where  Western  travel- 
lers are  seen,  some  of  the  ordinary  decencies  of  behavior 
observed  in  the  Western  world  are  practically  unknown, 
and  it  is  simply  impossible  for  me  to  do  much  more 
than  hint  at  the  dissoluteness  and  gross  animalism  in 
which  the  good-natured  Japanese  is  perfectly  at  home. 

Buddhism  has  been  represented  as  the  life,  the 
strength,  and  the  light  of  this  people,  and  Buddhism 
wrought  a  great  and  beneficent  history  in  its  early  days. 
But  it  is  a  system  out  of  which  to-day  in  Japan  the 
moral  vitality  has  largely  departed.  It  builds  great  tem- 
ples, the  Eastern  Hongwanji  which  I  saw  in  Kyoto,  very 
recently  completed,  being  the  largest  Buddhist  shrine 
in  Japan,  on  which  ten  millions  of  yen  have  been  ex- 
pended, money  raised  by  popular  subscription.     There 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  3IISSI0NS  227 

is  no  lack  of  worshippers  in  its  bronzed,  matted,  and 
lacquered  sanctuaries.  But  the  scandals  of  its  priest- 
hood are  notorious,  and  the  barrenness  of  its  services 
equally  so.  They  seem  hardly  worthy  of  children,  and 
the  Buddhist  sermons  are  largely  stories  of  historic  or 
mythical  heroes  which  may  kindle  the  patriotic  feeling, 
but  can  do  nothing  to  meet  the  deepest  needs  of  the 
soul.  Buddhism  in  Japan  is  fighting  Christianity  with 
its  own  weapons,  but  as  sure  as  human  nature  remains 
what  it  is,  and  growing  enlightenment  reveals  to  men 
their  need  of  God  and  redemption  and  immortality, 
Christianity  will  continue  its  beneficent  advance  in  the 
Island  Empire. 

My  observations  and  labors  were  largely  given  to 
India.  It  was  a  lectureship  founded  by  a  devoted 
member  of  a  church  in  Michigan  City,  Mrs.  Caroline 
E.  Haskell,  which  led  me  to  the  Orient,  and  the  bright- 
est visions  which  met  my  eyes  in  the  dark  continent  of 
Asia  and  elsewhere  were  the  mission  stations  at  which 
your  gifts  and  efforts  have  kindled  points  of  celestial 
light.  The  lectureship  was  fortunate  in  having  an 
American  origin,  and  fortunate  also  in  its  connection 
with  a  movement  of  religious  fraternity  and  conciliation 
which  touched  the  heart  of  a  proud  people.  It  has  been 
our  hope  that  this  foundation  would  prove  not  only  a 
useful  factor  in  the  evangelization  of  India,  but  also  a 
bond  of  brotherhood  and  loving  interest  between  East 
and  West.  It  is  plain  that  Christian  education  must  be 
a  main  factor  in  the  evangelization  of  a  land  where  the 
very  foundations  of  rational  theistic  and  Christian  faith 
are  yet  to  be  laid.  I  look  upon  the  Christian  colleges 
of  India  as  important  elements  in  the  national  regenera- 
tion, even  though  comparatively  few  of  their  students 


228  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

are  brave  enough  to  defy  disinheritance,  family  persecu- 
tion and  relentless  social  ostracism,  in  order  to  declare, 
in  the  face  of  the  cruel  intolerance  that  prevails,  the  faith 
in  Christianity,  which  thousands  of  them  are  secretly 
cherishing.  The  lectureship  is  intended  to  supplement 
the  work  of  Christian  literature  and  the  Christian  col- 
leges. It  was  my  mission,  in  speaking  to  the  educated 
classes,  to  lodge  as  firmly  as  possible  in  the  Hindu  mind 
our  conviction  that  Christianity  is  essentially  a  universal 
religion ;  to  show  that  it  must  not  be  identified  with 
any  Western  nation,  or  with  the  faults  and  vices  of  any 
one  people.  Flattered  by  the  praises  of  European 
scholars  who  unearthed  for  him  his  own  sacred  litera- 
ture, the  philosophic  Hindu  began  to  think  that  Hindu- 
ism reformed  and  purified  was  good  enough  for  his 
people,  and  indeed  possessed  a  glory  which  did  not 
belong  to  the  Christian  Gospel.  It  was  my  effort,  there- 
fore, to  show  that  Christianity,  judged  by  any  tests 
which  bring  out  its  true  nature,  is  essentially  universal. 
It  has  the  appearance  which  belongs  to  no  other  faith, 
of  compassing  the  globe,  moulding  more  and  more  the 
peoples  who  make  the  modern  world.  Its  fruits,  whether 
in  individual  or  social  life,  whether  among  barbarous  or 
civilized  peoples,  in  past  times  or  in  the  present,  dwarf 
and  eclipse  the  best  results  which  other  faiths  working 
over  limited  areas  can  possibly  produce.  The  literature 
of  Christianity,  its  sacred  Book,  judged  by  its  form  or 
contents,  has  universal  characteristics  not  discoverable 
elsewhere.  Its  doctrine  of  God  is  so  perfect  and  so 
adapted  to  human  need  that  enlightened  men,  living  in 
a  world  of  suffering  and  sin,  can  never  be  permanently 
contented  with  the  agnosticism  of  Buddha,  the  panthe- 
ism of  the  Hindu,  or  the   stern  monotheism  of  Islam. 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  229 

Furthermore,  Christianity  presents  an  absolutely  unique 
phenomenon  in  the  historic  Christ,  essentially  universal 
in  His  nature  and  teaching,  Son  of  God,  Son  of  man, 
living  for  human  example,  dying  for  human  redemption, 
rising  and  ever  living  to  be  the  inspiration  of  human 
hope — a  Christ  who,  from  the  very  beginning,  lodged  in 
His  followers  the  ineradicable  conviction  that  His  relig- 
ion was  meant  for  all,  was  adapted  to  all,  and  would  yet 
be  accepted  everywhere.  This  earnest  proclamation  of 
the  essential  universality  of  the  Christian  faith  was,  of 
course,  startling  and  not  altogether  acceptable  to  the 
proud  and  isolated  Hindu  spirit.  It  has  been  the  habit 
of  that  mind  in  recent  years  to  claim  for  Hinduism  every 
excellence  which  other  religions  bring  to  his  attention. 
My  persistent  advocacy  of  Christianity  as  a  religion 
seeking  after  the  whole  world  with  its  message  of  love 
and  salvation,  stirred  up  not  a  little  antagonism,  and  at 
the  close  of  one  of  my  lectures  in  Poona,  a  young  Brah- 
man, representing  the  omnivorousness  of  his  nation, 
which  has  swallowed  almost  everything  in  the  world  of 
the  spirit,  came  to  me  and  said  :  "  Dr.  Barrows,  you  are 
right  in  saying  that  Hinduism  has  not  been  a  missionary 
religion,  but  it  is  going  to  be ! "  Of  course,  there  is 
nothing  more  preposterous  than  this  bit  of  airy  vanity. 
The  currents  of  four  thousand  years  are  not  to  be  turned 
in  precisely  the  opposite  direction.  The  swamp  is 
not  to  be  transformed  into  a  fountain,  nor  the  Dead  Sea 
into  the  Amazon.  The  all-credulous  Hindu  mind  may 
believe  that  a  few  lecturers  on  Hindu  philosophy,  visit- 
ing Western  lands  have  reversed  or  will  reverse  the 
spirit  and  attitude  of  cycles  of  centuries,  but  it  still 
remains  true  that  Hinduism  is  a  national  religion,  and 
that,  to  enter  its  circle,  is  a  question  of  geography  as 


230  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

well  as  of  race.  The  Brahman  priest  in  the  temple  of 
Parbati,  to  whom  I  put  the  question:  "How  can  I 
become  a  Hindu?  "  answered  correctly :  "  It  is  impossi- 
ble. To  be  a  Hindu,  one  must  be  born  a  Hindu."  How 
difficult  in  some  cases  it  is  to  lodge  in  the  Brahman 
mind  the  notion  that  there  is  a  universal  religion  which 
deserves  acceptance  by  the  Indus  and  the  Ganges  as 
well  as  by  the  Hudson  and  the  Thames,  was  illustrated 
by  the  Chairman  of  my  lecture  in  one  of  the  cities  of 
Southern  India.  I  had  finished  my  address,  whereinto 
I  had  put  every  ounce  and  atom  of  my  earnest  convic- 
tion in  regard  to  the  sovereign  claims  of  Christianity 
over  every  human  mind  and  conscience,  when  the  Chair- 
man, after  the  usual  complimentary  remarks,  said  to 
his  Hindu  hearers :  "  You  see  how  thoroughly  the 
lecturer  believes  his  religion.  His  whole  heart  is  in  it. 
His  earnestness  has  made  him  strong.  What  lesson 
may  we  learn  from  him  ?  It  is  this  :  that  we  should  be 
as  earnest  and  devoted  to  our  religion  as  he  is  to  his ! " 
In  setting  forth  the  claims  of  Christianity,  it  was  my 
duty  to  use  the  comparative  method.  The  comparative 
method  is  certainly  the  fairest.  It  seeks  for  truth  and 
endeavors  to  determine  where,  at  each  point  of  the  com- 
parison, the  greater,  the  purer,  the  completer,  the  more 
effective  truth  is  found.  Now  I  wish  to  say,  with  the 
greatest  possible  emphasis,  that  my  conviction  aris- 
ing out  of  perhaps  a  unique  experience  in  meeting  large 
numbers  of  non-Christian  hearers — Hindu,  Moslem,  and 
Buddhist — is  clear  and  strong,  that  the  comparative 
method  when  faithfully  applied  by  the  Christian  to  other 
religions,  is  not  only  the  fairest,  but  is  also  the  most  en- 
lightening, humiliating,  and  even  exasperating  method. 
Comparisons  are  not  always  agreeable,  even  when  they 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  231 

serve  to  bring  out  the  truth.  Christian  missionaries 
may  set  forth  the  Gospel  of  Christ  in  what  I  may  call 
the  usual  method,  that  prevailing  in  Christian  lands, 
and  awaken  often  only  a  sluggish  interest  and  arouse 
but  little  antagonism.  I  might  have  followed  the 
usual  method,  and  probably  would  not  have  called  for 
so  many  columns  of  hostile  criticisms  as  those  with 
which  the  native  Indian  press  abounded.  I  must  tes- 
tify, however,  to  the  general  spirit  of  courtesy  which 
prevailed  even  in  these  criticisms,  and  I  must  also  say 
that  the  constant  kindness  which  I  received  and  the 
patient  and  respectful  hearing  given  to  the  lectures  were 
remarkable.  Missionaries  informed  me  that  they  would 
scarcely  have  ventured  before  such  audiences  of  edu- 
cated men  to  have  spoken  with  such  frankness  and  ful- 
ness of  conviction.  I  believe  there  was  no  lack  on  my 
part  of  appreciation  of  what  is  best  in  other  religions. 
There  was  general  testimony  that  my  lectures  contained 
no  abuse  of  Hinduism,  but  at  every  point  of  compari- 
son I  indicated  the  immense  superiority  of  Christianity. 
While  Hinduism  is  national,  Christianity  is  universal. 
While  the  effects  of  Hinduism  are  so  mixed  of  good 
and  evil  as  to  condemn  it  when  judged  by  a  lofty  stand- 
ard and  seen  through  long  periods  of  time,  the  results 
of  Christianity  demand  a  favorable  verdict  for  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.  While  the  polytheistic  and  panthe- 
istic elements  have  led  to  degrading  worship  or  pro- 
duced moral  paralysis,  the  holy,  loving,  redeeming  God 
of  Christian  theism  has  awakened  and  confirmed  the 
best  possibilities  of  human  nature.  The  superiority  of 
the  Christian  over  the  Hindu  scriptures  is  dazzlingly 
evident  at  every  point  of  comparison,  while  to  rank 
Krishna  with  Christ  is  to  put  one's  self  out  of  the  domain 


232  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

of  scholarship  as  well  as  out  of  the  precincts  of  moral- 
ity. Furthermore,  the  philosophy  which  the  Hindu 
revivalists  exploit  as  something  more  certain  and  per- 
manent than  the  New  Testament  history,  is  after  all  a 
jumble  of  fantastic  speculations.  One  set  of  opinions  is 
ridiculed  by  the  holders  of  rival  theories,  and  while  the 
influence  of  their  philosophies  is  revealed  in  the  acute 
minds  and  distorted  and  untrustworthy  moral  character 
of  the  Brahmans,  they  have  not  benefited  the  Hindu 
millions  with  their  so-called  sublime  abstractions.  What 
has  affected  popular  Hinduism  has  been  the  legendary 
history,  if  I  may  so  call  it,  of  the  Eamayana  and  the 
Mahabharata,  which  seems  like  a  barbarous,  grotesque 
caricature  of  the  true  supernaturalism  of  the  Gospel. 

I  did  not  expect  to  find  the  work  of  Christian  mis- 
sions so  varied,  wise,  faithful,  and  effective  as  I  discov- 
ered it  to  be.  This  discovery  came  in  part  from  the 
unusual  opportunities  enjoyed  of  seeing  the  work  of  so 
many  societies,  European  and  American ;  of  seeing  the 
work  in  all  parts  of  India ;  of  seeing  all  kinds  of  work 
in  schools,  colleges,  hospitals;  bazaar-preaching,  tract 
and  Bible  distribution  in  villages  and  cities,  and  of  see- 
ing all  this  work  under  the  eyes  and  with  the  expla- 
nations of  those  Christians,  native  and  foreign,  whose 
lives  are  most  closely  identified  with  it.  The  study  of 
missions  was  not  with  me  something  subordinate  and 
secondary.  It  was  not  put  off  until  after  I  had  seen 
the  tombs,  the  temples,  the  streets,  and  the  shops,  the 
monuments  and  the  palaces.  It  was  a  chief  business 
of  my  hours  not  devoted  to  public  speaking.  I  learned 
of  missions  from  those  who  knew  most  about  them,  who 
knew  their  failures  and  their  successes  ;  from  those 
who  had  been  benefited  by  them ;  from  those  who  were 


SUCCESS   OF   ASIATIC  MISSIONS  233 

opposed  to  tliem.  Most  of  all,  I  relied  on  my  own  ob- 
servations, constant,  careful,  repeated  daily  observations. 
If  men  wish  to  learn  of  the  trade  of  a  country,  or  of  its 
colleges,  or  of  its  politics,  they  confer  with  traders,  col- 
lege men,  politicians.  They  study  on  the  spot  and 
under  the  guidance  of  experts.  After  three  months  in 
India  and  nearly  one  month  in  Japan,  wherein  amplest 
opportunities  were  mine  for  seeing  and  knowing  the 
labors  of  Christian  propagandists  in  the  Orient,  I  record 
with  deep  conviction  that  Christian  missions  in  the 
East  are  more  wonderful,  more  admirable,  and  better 
worth  studying  than  any  other  feature  of  the  life  of 
Asia. 

I  am  grateful  that  in  the  work  of  a  score  of  missionary 
societies,  I  could  see  so  many  evidences  of  the  fruitful- 
ness,  hopefulness,  and  beneficent  power  of  Christian 
evangelism.  Certainly  the  Bishop  of  Tinnevelly,  who 
between  last  March  and  the  previous  November  was  per- 
mitted to  confirm  more  than  two  thousand  native  con- 
verts, does  not  despair  of  the  evangelization  of  India. 
Having  conversed  with  Brahman-Christian  preachers 
and  professors  in  colleges,  having  seen  a  Brahman  in  the 
bazaars  of  Benares  proclaiming  Christ  amid  the  hideous 
idolatries  of  that  city,  having  seen  whole  rows  of  Brah- 
man converts  in  Christian  churches,  I  not  only  repudi- 
ate the  mendacious  story  that  no  true  Aryan  is  ever 
converted,  but  I  cherish  a  hope  that  in  time  to  come 
multitudes  of  the  twice-born  classes  will  be  born  again 
by  the  Spirit  of  God. 

Let  one  visit  a  hundred  Christian  schools  in  which  I 
have  seen  gathered  the  dark-eyed  boys  and  girls  of 
Arcot,  Bengal,  and  the  Punjab  ;  let  him  see  the  native 
congregations  of  Christians  in  Lucknow  and  Palamcotta, 


234:  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

in  Ahmednagar  and  Madras,  and  contrast  their  homes 
with  the  conditions  out  of  which  they  came  ;  let  him 
visit  the  hospital  work  in  Amritsar  and  Indore  ;  let  him 
study  the  various  forms  of  organized  Christian  labor  by 
which  the  Church  Missionary  Society  is  ministering  to 
the  ignorant,  the  blind,  the  deaf  and  dumb  in  Polam- 
cottah ;  let  him  see  what  the  Pundita  Bamabai  is  doing 
in  Poona  for  the  relief  and  instruction  of  Hindu  high- 
caste  widows ;  let  him  mark  the  Biblical,  literary,  and 
scientific  instruction  given  to  the  eighteen  hundred  boys 
aud  young  men  in  the  Christian  College,  Madras,  and  to 
the  hundreds  in  Duff  College,  Calcutta  ;  Forinan  College, 
Lahore  ;  Reid  College,  Lucknow ;  Wilson  College,  Bom- 
bay ;  Wesley  College,  Bangalore ;  St.  John's  College, 
Agra;  St.  Stephen's  College,  Delhi;  let  him  follow  the 
Bible  women  in  their  diligent  teaching  of  the  Scriptures  ; 
let  him  hear  the  reports  of  the  great  army  of  Christian 
women  who  are  carrying  light  and  cheer,  comfort  and 
hope,  into  darkened  zenanas  ;  let  him  note  how  millions 
of  printed  Christian  pages  are  spreading  all  abroad  the 
mighty  Gospel  of  redemption  ;  let  him  study  such  huge 
turnings  to  Christ  as  have  followed  the  preaching  of  the 
Baptists  among  the  Telugus  and  of  the  Methodists  in 
Northern  India  ;  let  him  renew  his  acquaintance  with 
the  monstrous  usages  which  prevailed  eighty  years  ago, 
and  which  Christian  civilization  in  India  has  swept 
away ;  let  him  read  the  reports  already  published,  which 
show  that  the  last  year  has  been  the  most  fruitful  and 
glorious  year  in  the  whole  of  the  history  of  Indian  mis- 
sions ;  let  him  note  the  hundred  signs  that  the  old  Hin- 
duism is  decadent  and  doomed ;  let  him  study  the  re- 
formatory movements  which  the  presence  and  power 
of  Christianity  have  started  into  life  ;  let  him  remember 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  235 

that,  with  all  the  forces  which  keep  people  back  from 
open  confession,  the  membership  of  native  churches  in 
India  has  increased  more  rapidly  during  the  last  twenty 
years  than  has  the  population,  and  he  will  be  convinced 
that,  though  only  a  good  beginning  has  been  made,  and 
generations  of  Christian  effort  are  yet  required  to  do  for 
the  Empire  of  India  what  the  Gospel  wrought  for  the 
regeneration  of  ancient  Rome,  still  he  has  seen  and 
learned  enough  to  dispel  the  error  contained  in  the  oft- 
quoted  remark  that  Christian  missions  in  India  are  a 
failure. 

One  morning,  in  a  village  six  miles  from  Ahmednagar, 
I  was  permitted,  by  Dr.  Robert  A.  Hume,  to  baptize  and 
receive  into  the  Church  two  young  men,  recent  converts 
to  Christ.  It  was  a  very  humble  place  where  the  vil- 
lagers assembled,  but  I  was  never  before  so  deeply 
moved  by  such  a  service.  Sitting  and  standing  on  the 
floor  of  earth  were  true  confessors  of  the  old  faith  which 
I  had  heard  chanted  in  stately  cathedrals  by  the  Thames, 
the  Tiber,  and  the  Rhine.  Here  were  believers  in  that 
Name  before  which  emperors  have  bowed,  and  my  hand 
trembled  as  I  touched  their  dusky  foreheads  with 
the  baptismal  waters.  It  seemed  to  me  that  He  who 
stooped  to  the  lowliness  of  Bethlehem  and  Nazareth 
was  almost  sensibly  present  in  the  little  meeting-house, 
which  the  dark  hands  of  these  humble  people  had  dec- 
orated with  fruits  and  flowers,  out  of  regard  to  one  of 
Christ's  ministers,  who  had  come  to  them  from  the 
other  side  of  the  sea. 

A  single  glimpse  of  a  congregation  of  Hindu  Chris- 
tians is  a  better  argument  for  missions  than  any  elo- 
quence can  elaborate.  If  the  next  annual  meeting  of 
the  Presbyterian  General  Assembly  could  be  held  in  the 


236  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

heart  of  India,  there  would  be  no  further  need  for  Dr. 
Ellinwood  and  your  other  secretaries  to  urge  you  to 
keep  out  of  debt.  Things  seen  are  greater  than  things 
heard,  and  yet  things  heard  by  the  heart  of  faith  and 
good-will  and  by  minds  of  keen  and  sympathetic  intel- 
ligence ought  to  awaken  such  an  interest  as  to  sweep 
Christian  America  into  the  very  vanguard  of  the  mis- 
sionary battle. 

It  is  almost  an  impertinence  for  me  or  anyone  else 
to  eulogize  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  courage  and  self- 
denying  devotion  which  has  marked  the  lives  of  your 
missionaries,  those  now  living  and  those  who  have  en- 
tered into  brighter  spheres.  The  stars  of  the  Southern 
Cross  look  down  through  the  palm-trees  of  India  upon 
the  graves  of  many  American  Christians,  graves  as 
sacred  as  any  in  Plymouth  or  Princeton,  in  Greenwood 
or  Gettysburg,  and  the  voice  which  comes  from  these 
heroic  sepulchres  is  such  an  appeal  to  the  Christian 
heart  of  America  that,  mingled  with  the  plaintive  voices 
of  Asia's  dying  millions,  it  will  not  permit  you  to  take 
one  step  backward. 

Christian  missions  are  not  above  just  criticism.  They 
are  partly  a  reflex  of  our  imperfect  Christendom,  but 
they  are  not  to  be  justly  criticised  by  those  who  are 
out  of  sympathy  with  all  Christian  evangelism.  The 
toil  and  self-sacrifice  which  have  been  put  into  this  work 
are  prodigious,  and  the  notion  that  missionaries  live  a 
luxurious  and  self-indulgent  life  is  the  fabrication  of 
ignorance  or  malice.  Having  been  for  four  months  in 
missionary  homes,  I  know  the  sorrows,  trials  and  daily 
toils  of  these  men  and  women,  the  anguish  of  separation 
from  children,  the  many  discouragements  by  which 
their  work  is  accompanied,  but  by  which  they  are  never 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  237 

discouraged,  the  many  erroneous  and  undeserved  criti- 
cisms by  which  they  are  assailed.  And  I  wish  to  affirm 
before  the  Christian  public  of  America,  what  you  all 
well  know,  that  these  men  and  women,  true  representa- 
tives of  the  spirit  and  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  are 
worthy,  not  only  of  our  confidence,  but  also  of  our 
prayerful  and  self-sacrificing  co-operation,  tenfold  more 
than  the  churches  have  yet  given.  Christianity  is  not 
asceticism,  and  asceticism  of  the  Hindu  sort  is  incom- 
patible with  Christian  living.  Our  representatives  in 
the  Orient  require  for  their  wearisome  and  nerve-de- 
stroying lives  the  environments  of  a  Christian  home, 
and  I  am  glad  that  missionary  homes  reproduce  in  a 
simple,  unpretentious  way  the  decencies  and  comforts 
of  English  and  American  households,  and  I  am  glad 
that  the  missionaries  are  few  in  India  or  China  who  try 
to  conform  to  the  habits  of  life  prevailing  about  them, 
and  thus  diminish  their  strength,  lessen  their  powers  of 
service,  and  cut  short  their  years  of  usefulness. 

I  have  come  back  from  my  observations  of  Asia  with 
a  feeling  that  America  does  not  yet  begin  to  appreciate 
the  great  part  which  she  must  play  in  the  moral  strug- 
gles of  the  future,  that  lie  outside  of  our  national  do- 
main. Ours  is  the  chief  branch  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
We  are  soon  to  become,  as  Lowell  prophesied,  "  the 
most  powerful  and  prosperous  community  ever  devised 
and  developed  by  man."  The  time  of  our  moral  and 
political  isolation  has  passed  away.  Those  who,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  left  our  shores  for  the  pioneer 
missionary  work  in  the  Orient,  have  sown  seeds  more 
potential  than  they  dreamed.  The  type  of  Christianity 
which  America  represents  is  more  ethical,  humane,  pro- 
gressive, life-giving  than  the  types  of  Oriental  churches, 


238  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

and  of  the  national  European  establishments.  America's 
place  in  the  Christianizing  of  the  world  is  far  ahead,  in 
the  very  foremost  ranks.  We  have  the  greatest  wealth 
of  all  nations  ;  here  Christianity  has  a  free  field  for  the 
exercise  of  its  divine  energies ;  here  the  sense  of  in- 
dividual responsibility  has  been  developed,  and  God 
has  placed  us,  like  Israel  of  old,  in  the  centre  of  the 
nations,  touching  England's  greatest  colony  on  the 
north,  and  the  whole  Spanish  world,  reaching  from 
the  Rio  Grande  to  Cape  Horn,  on  the  south,  while  to 
the  west  of  us  is  that  Asiatic  world  of  immeasurable 
greatness  which,  when  wakened  out  of  sleep,  will  com- 
bine with  America  to  make  the  Pacific  Ocean  the  chief 
highway  of  the  world's  commerce. 

And  one  does  not  feel  that  America  grows  less  im- 
portant as,  after  eighty  days  of  voyaging  in  mid-ocean, 
or  skirting  the  shores  of  great  continents,  he  comes  to 
realize  the  earth's  bigness,  and  the  multitude  of  interests 
which  lie  outside  of  our  own  land.  Before  two  centuries 
have  passed  away,  the  English  language  will  be  the 
vehicle  of  commerce,  literature  and  civilization  for  the 
majority  of  the  human  race.  Many  a  time,  in  my  con- 
versations with  English  people,  I  have  startled  them 
with  a  new  fact ;  and  a  new  fact  is  usually  disturbing  to 
the  British  mind — namely,  that  more  than  one-half  of 
those  who  now  speak  the  English  tongue  live  beneath 
the  Stars  and  Stripes.  America  represents  to  the  Ori- 
ent the  higher  aims  and  possibilities  of  men.  There  is 
a  patriotism  which  is  foolish,  absurd  and  ignorant.  I 
might  tell  you  how  Japan  is  now  nourished  on  such  a 
patriotism;  how  the  people  are  taught  in  the  schools 
that  their  history  is  more  significant  than  the  history  of 
other  nations,  and  that  their  recent  progress  indicates 


SUCCESS  OF  ASTATIC  MISSIONS  239 

their  immense  superiority  over  other  lands.  Multitudes 
of  the  Japanese  people  feel  that  their  country  is  the 
centre  of  the  world,  and  I  know  a  missionary  lady  who 
believed  that  a  lesson  in  geography  might  help  to  clar- 
ify the  mind  of  a  Japanese  woman  who  was  affected 
with  this  senseless  patriotism.  A  map  of  the  world 
was  spread  out  before  her ;  aud  when  she  took  it  into 
her  vision,  and  beheld  the  little  Japanese  Islands  off  the 
coast  of  Asia,  she  inquired,  in  her  bitter  disappoint- 
ment :  "  Is  that  all  ?  "  But  an  enlightened  acquaintance 
with  mankind  does  not  lessen  our  just  estimate  of  the 
strategic  and  perpetual  importance  of  a  land  so  vast, 
rich  and  centrally  situated  as  ours  to  the  future  de- 
velopment of  humanity. 

To  the  Hindu,  America  has  a  very  different  sound 
from  England.  Members  of  the  National  Indian  Con- 
gress informed  me  that  they  looked  upon  our  constitu- 
tion and  our  history  and  our  prosperity  as  guides  and 
incentives  in  their  work  for  that  future  India  which 
rises  before  their  imaginations  like  a  splendid  dawn  on 
the  far-off  golden  heights  of  Kinchinjunga.  I  remem- 
ber how  in  Constantinople  the  English  companions  of 
our  voyage  almost  winced  when  they  came  to  realize 
what  a  shining  record  America,  by  her  schools,  churches, 
and  colleges,  had  made  in  the  last  sixty  years  in  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  set  over  against  the  measureless 
shame  and  cruel  diabolic  selfishness  of  the  European 
powers,  who  have  been  plunging  from  one  depth  of  in- 
famy down  into  those  lowest  deeps  where  now  all  the 
devils  hiss  and  riot  and  applaud.  And,  if  I  were  asked 
to  name  that  place  which  I  have  seen  in  all  the  world 
where  Christian  civilization,  as  shown  in  general  intelli- 
gence and  morality  and  good-will  among  different  races ; 


240  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

in  the  abundance  of  schools,  asylums,  and  churches;  in 
wide-spread  material  prosperity,  and  in  zealous  devotion 
to  the  expansion  of  God's  Kingdom  on  earth  had  reached 
its  brightest  manifestations,  I  should  mention,  without 
a  moment's  hesitancy,  a  tiny  state  in  the  Pacific  which 
American  Missions  lifted  out  of  savagery,  and  which 
I  pray  and  hope  may  before  long  be  linked  to  the 
American  Commonwealth,  the  Island  Republic  of  Ha- 
waii. 

There  is  nothing  fantastic  or  unreal  in  the  missionary 
purposes  which  fill  your  hearts.  The  century  we  live 
in  is  illustrious  as  the  time  when  the  Church  of  Christ 
so  enlarged  her  tents  as  to  present  the  appearance  of  a 
universal  faith.  It  is  strange  to  me  that  any  world- 
traveller  would  be  willing  or  able  to  miss  from  his  view 
the  fruits  of  this  wide-reaching  Christian  evangelism. 
I  have  found  them  everywhere,  beneath  the  infernal 
gloom  which  broods  over  Constantinople,  in  schools  and 
churches  which  the  Sultan  ought  never  to  have  admitted 
to  his  empire,  if  the  Ottoman  Government  saw  that  a 
pure  Christianity  would  work  out  its  inevitable  results, 
and  make  human  beings  dissatisfied  with  ignorance, 
robbery,  oppression  and  wholesale  assassination.  I 
have  seen  the  fruitage  of  Christian  missionary  work  in 
the  cities  and  mud  villages  along  the  Nile,  where  the 
impoverished  remnants  of  populations  whose  ancestors 
may  have  built  the  P}rramids  are  coming  out  into  a 
spiritual  liberty  and  independence  for  which  Pharaohs 
and  Ptolemys,  Caliphs  and  Khedives  never  made  pro- 
visions. I  have  seen  Christian  missions  everywhere,  in 
more  than  a  score  of  the  crowded  cities  of  India,  touch- 
ing with  the  light  of  the  Gospel  the  minds  of  the 
little  children  in  the  schools  and  of  the  restless  youth 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  241 

in  the  colleges  ;  sounding  its  message  in  the  brilliant 
and  dusty  bazaars,  and  bringing  the  hand  of  medical 
skill  and  the  voice  of  Christian  consolation  to  the 
wards  of  many  a  hospital. 

Christian  schools  look  out  upon  the  eternal  snows  of 
the  Himalayas  and  the  everlasting  verdure  of  Ceylon.  I 
have  found  the  Christian  herald  at  work  where  the  isl- 
and of  Singapore  keeps  watch  between  the  Pacific  and 
Indian  Seas,  and  where  the  mountain-island  of  Hong 
Kong  guards  one  of  the  chief  harbors  of  China  and  the 
fourth  port  of  the  world,  and  where  the  islands  of  Japan 
are  to  become  more  beautiful  with  the  leaves  of  the 
Gospel  than  with  the  cherry-blossoms  in  the  spring- 
time. I  have  sailed  beneath  many  flags — beneath  the 
white,  black,  and  red  of  Germany ;  the  tricolor  of  the 
French  Eepublic  ;  the  Union  Jack  of  dear  old  England ; 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  of  America.  I  have  seen  the  flag 
of  Italy  in  the  harbor  of  Smyrna,  the  Star  and  Crescent 
on  the  waters  of  the  Bosporus,  and  the  Dragon  Flag  of 
China  on  the  borders  of  the  Yellow  Sea.  I  have  visited 
shores  over  which  floated  no  European  flag,  but  I  have 
not  seen  the  coast  of  any  land  on  which  had  not  been 
planted  the  standard  of  the  Cross. 

I  am  sometimes  asked,  What  is  the  most  beautiful 

sight  in  Asia  ?     In  art,  undoubtedly  the  Taj  Mahal,  the 

palace -tomb  in  Agra,  the  pearl  and  crown  of  Moslem 

architecture.     Bathed  in  the  moonlight,  it  is  a  dream 

of  the  white  domes  of  the  Celestial  City.     He  who  has 

seen  the  wonders  of  the  world  may  contrast  the  Taj 

Mahal,  especially  after  he  has  gone  away  from  it,  with 

the  florid  gorgeousness  of  St.  Peter's ;  he  may  feel  his 

soul  drawn  nearer  to  God  in  mighty  aspiration  and  in 

memory  of  the  world's  Christian  past  in  the  columned 
16 


242  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

aisles  of  the  Cologne  Cathedral ;  and,  standing  amid  the 
statues  and  sculptured  flower-gardens  on  the  roof  of 
many-spired  Milan,  beholding  the  sunlight  breaking 
through  the  clouds  on  the  snowy  peaks  of  St.  Gothard, 
he  may  have  a  keener  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  man  and 
of  the  greatness  of  God;  but  nowhere  else,  as  in  the 
Taj  Mahal,  have  I  had  such  a  sober  certainty  of  the 
waking  bliss  of  beauty  and  of  human  love  embodied  in 
architecture. 

But  if  you  inquire  what  is  the  noblest  sight  which 
India  can  show  the  traveller  in  the  world  of  nature,  I 
take  you  with  me  to  the  heights  of  Darjeeling,  and  bid 
you  look  far  above  the  clouds  to  the  golden  darlings  of 
the  dawn  cradled  in  mid- ether,  those  inaccessible  and 
incomparable  peaks  on  which  human  foot  has  never 
trod,  the  home  of  the  Hindu  gods,  the  inspiration  of 
the  "Vedic  poets — those  mysterious  Himalayan  heights, 
rising  almost  three  miles  above  the  loftiest  summits  of 
Switzerland.  But  if  you  ask  me  what  is  the  most  won- 
derful sight  in  the  world  of  the  spirit,  I  bid  you  walk 
with  reverent  feet  and  uncovered  head  into  some  hum- 
ble Christian  meeting-house,  hard  by,  it  may  be,  to  some 
gorgeous  or  loathsome  Hindu  temple.  I  ask  you  to 
look  into  the  faces  of  these  men,  women  and  children, 
from  whose  eyes  there  comes  back  to  you  the  reflected 
light  of  Bethlehem  and  Calvary  and  the  glorious  Mount 
of  Ascension.  I  have  stood  before  companies  of  native 
Christians  in  nearly  all  the  chief  cities  of  Hindostan, 
from  the  northern  mountains  to  the  southern  seas,  and 
I  have  felt  that  I  saw  something  more  beautiful  than 
the  Taj  Mahal,  soaring  like  a  white  bubble  of  a  dome 
above  the  gardens  on  the  banks  of  the  Jumna  ;  and  when 
one  considers  the  environments  of  such  lives  as  these, 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  243 

when  one  reflects  on  the  darkness,  superstition,  degra- 
dation, and  persecution  out  of  which  they  or  their 
fathers  may  have  come,  the  Himalaya  Mountains  are 
not  so  marvellous  an  exhibition  of  God's  almighty  pow- 
er as  these  native  Christian  lives  of  His  omnipotent, 
redeeming  grace. 

0  the  immeasurable  privilege  and  commanding  duty 
of  giving  to  men  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God !  It  is 
said  that  most  of  the  money  contributed  by  the  British 
Government  to  India  for  the  relief  of  the  starving  is 
stolen  by  native  officials  who  have  been  appointed  to 
distribute  it,  and  robbery  in  a  case  like  this  is  certainly 
murder.  God  gives  us  an  abundance  for  ourselves,  and 
such  an  abundance  that  we  can  easilv  send  the  bread  of 
life  to  the  millions  of  the  Dark  Continent  and  the  hun- 
dreds of  millions  who  are  perishing  in  the  twilight  of 
Asia ;  and  if  our  careless  or  covetous  fingers  clutch  and 
hold  what  God  intended  for  others,  do  we  not  rob  both 
God  and  man?  And  he  who  robs  a  starving  soul  is 
verily  guilty  of  even  a  greater  sin  than  he  who  robs  a 
starving  bod}'.  Let  no  one  imagine  that  the  Oriental 
religions  have  life  enough  left  in  them  to  disprove  man's 
need  of  Christianity.  I  have  seen  the  best  and  the 
worst  that  these  faiths  can  do  for  their  followers ;  and 
I  am  more  deeply  convinced  than  ever  that  Christian- 
ity, the  religion  of  redemption,  which  shows  us  God 
mercifully  seeking  after  men,  and  not  men  blindly 
groping  after  God  —  that  Christianity,  the  religion  of 
reason  and  brotherhood,  of  civilization  and  of  prog- 
ress, is  the  best  treasure  which  America  has  for  dying 
nations. 

1  met  numerous  evidences  that  American  mission- 
aries have  an  especial  advantage  over  their  brethren 


244  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

from  other  nations,  in  that  they  represent  this  Western 
Republic.  I  know  that  we  have  behaved  badly  at  times 
toward  Chinese,  and  that  the  action  of  our  government 
in  its  exclusion  of  Chinese  immigrants  and  its  disregard 
of  solemn  treaty  obligations  has  given  offence.  Bat 
we  have  the  testimony  of  so  experienced  an  observer  as 
Dr.  Martin,  of  Peking,  that  the  common  people  of  China 
are  well  disposed  toward  us  and  our  Christian  repre- 
sentatives, until  they  are  stirred  up  by  members  of  the 
official  class.  If  you  seek  for  the  causes,  and  they  are 
many,  of  the  dis-esteem  in  which  representatives  of 
Western  Christendom  are  held  by  the  people  of  the  East, 
you  cannot  trace  many  of  them  that  are  important — I 
might  well  say,  any  of  them  that  are  important — to  the 
doors  of  our  American  missionaries.  I  have  come  back 
from  a  voyage  around  the  world  with  a  new  feeling  of 
the  moral  glory  which  belongs  to  our  beloved  land.  The 
only  other  nation  that  can  be  compared  with  ours  is,  of 
course,  England.  The  Honorable  Mr.  Curzon  dedicates 
his  valuable  book  on  "Problems  of  the  Ear  East  "  to 
those  who  believe  that  the  British  Empire  is  under 
providence  the  greatest  instrument  for  good  that  the 
world  has  seen.  I  am  not  here  to  undervalue  that  Em- 
pire. A  voyage  round  the  world  does  not  lessen  one's 
sense  of  England's  importance  or  of  the  general  benef- 
icence of  her  rule.  She  guards  the  portals  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, the  Indian,  and  the  Pacific  Seas.  She  has 
given  the  bodies  of  her  children  to  the  dark  depths  of 
the  ocean  to  widen  a  realm  on  which,  as  on  our  own, 
the  sun  never  sets;  and  no  one  can  read  "  A  Song  of  the 
English,"  as  sung  by  the  true  laureate  of  the  Empire, 
without  entering  into  some  sympathy  with  her  world- 
conquering  spirit. 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  245 


11  We  have  fed  our  sea  for  a  thousand  years, 
And  she  calls  us,  still  unfed, 
Though  there's  never  a  wave  of  all  her  waves 
But  marks  our  English  dead. 

"  We  have  strawed  our  best  to  the  weed's  unrest 
To  the  shark  and  the  sheering  gull. 
If  blood  be  the  price  of  admiralty, 
Lord  God,  we  ha'  paid  in  full. 

"  There's  never  a  flood  goes  shoreward  now 
But  lifts  a  keel  we  manned  ; 
There's  never  an  ebb  goes  seaward  now 
But  drops  our  dead  on  the  sand." 

But,  after  all,  there  is  a  selfish  look  about  much  of 
England's  predominance  in  the  Orient  and  in  the  South- 
ern waters.  England's  dealings  with  subject  popula- 
tions, like  our  dealings  with  the  Indians,  have  some- 
times shocked  the  moral  sense  of  mankind ;  and  never 
have  I  heard  such  denunciations  of  England's  lust  for 
land  as  in  a  great  Christian  demonstration  in  the  City 
Temple  of  London.  I  confess  that  I  felt  humiliated  when 
the  American  Senate  rejected  the  Treaty  of  Arbitration, 
but  I  know  very  well  that  the  arguments  for  distrust  of 
England  were  then  not  few  nor  feeble.  Her  isolation 
has  not  been  altogether  "  splendid."  Her  want  of  tact, 
her  domineering  ways,  her  fierce  jingoism,  have  kept 
from  her  the  completer  confidence  which  the  better  Eng- 
land would  surely  have  gained.*  Indeed,  many  felt  that 
the  true  England,  the  England  of  missions,  of  liberty, 
of  justice,  the  England  of  Wilberforce  and  Shaftesbury, 

*  These  words  were  spoken  before  the  happy  and  extraordinary  out- 
burst of  friendly  English  feeling  toward  America  during  the  Spanish 
war. 


246  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

of  Bright  and  Gladstone,  had  been  suppressed  for  a 
time.  Had  the  truer  England  been  in  power,  the  Arbi- 
tration Treaty  would  never  have  been  rejected. 

The  sins  and  shortcomings  of  America  are,  of  course, 
conspicuous  enough,  and  are  eagerly  reported  to  the 
ends  of  the  world.  Conversing  with  the  Maharajah  of 
Indore,  a  native  Prince  who  is  naturally  in  love  with 
despotism,  he  asked  if  the  railroad  riots  in  Chicago 
were  not  an  indication  that  our  American  civilization 
was  weak.  And,  at  a  reception  given  by  the  Social  Re- 
formers in  Madras,  I  found  they  had  at  their  tongues' 
end  all  the  pessimistic  reports  of  American  corruption 
in  politics  and  in  the  family  life ;  and  I  had  no  easy  task 
in  proving  to  them  that  the  nobler  and  sounder  ele- 
ments of  American  civilization  were  still  supreme.  But 
the  one  evidence  that  America  is  a  land  of  goodness  and 
righteousness,  an  evidence  that  is  stronger  than  rumor 
and  prejudice,  is  found  in  the  character  and  work  of  our 
American  missionaries  in  all  the  wide  realms  of  the 
Orient. 

While  it  is  pleasant  to  find  the  sewing-machines,  and 
the  bicycles,  the  clocks,  and  the  oil  of  our  country  in 
the  shops  of  the  Orient,  it  is  more  inspiring  to  feel  the 
presence  of  American  teachers  and  missionaries,  bent  on 
redeeming  the  human  mind  from  error  and  on  laying 
the  foundations  of  an  ethical  civilization.  Other  lands 
are  represented  by  the  sword.  In  India  Great  Britain 
stands  for  military  power  and  commercial  gain,  as 
well  as  for  justice,  education,  progress,  and  civilization. 
Germany  is  stretching  out  her  strong  military  hand  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  Pacific  Seas.  Spain,  Holland, 
and  Portugal  have  had  their  eyes  and  hands  on  the 
Orient  for  centuries.     Underneath  the  Dutch  flag  are 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  247 

more  tlian  thirty  millions  of  people  in  the  great  south- 
eastern archipelago.  France  has  planted  herself  on  the 
Island  of  Madagascar  and  on  the  fertile  lands  of  Ton- 
quin.  The  American  voyager  in  the  East  does  not  see 
the  American  flag  in  the  harbors  of  the  Orient  as  often 
as  he  might  wish.  But  I  have  found  the  American 
name  beloved  and  trusted  where  other  names  failed  to 
awaken  any  happy  and  affectionate  feeling.  The  bright- 
est light  which  shines  on  the  Syrian  coast  beneath  the 
shadow  of  the  Lebanon  Mountains  flashes  from  an 
American  college,  and  the  darkness  which  broods  over 
the  pyramids  and  the  tombs  of  the  sacred  bulls  would 
be  far  deeper  but  for  the  American  Presbyterian  schools 
and  colleges  stretching  through  the  whole  length  of  the 
land  of  the  Nile.  And  throughout  India,  from  coast  to 
coast — and  I  crossed  the  Continent  five  times — while  I 
saw  many  things  to  depress  the  mind  and  bring  before 
me  the  shames  of  Christendom,  my  heart  was  filled  with 
pride  over  the  good  name  which  American  Christians 
have  given  to  their  country.  Landing  in  Bombay,  the 
first  song  that  broke  upon  our  hearing  was  "  America," 
sung  by  the  Christian  Marathi  children  in  the  Com- 
pound of  the  American  Mission.  I  would  not  win  the 
hearts  of  these,  and  such  as  these,  fromloyalty  to  India; 
but  India  has  little  to  give  them  except  ignorance,  su- 
perstition, extreme  poverty,  and  perhaps  moral  debase- 
ment. These  bright-eyed  children  could  have  no  grati- 
tude to  India,  and  could  not  feel  a  very  deep  patriotic 
pride  in  the  present,  or  even  in  the  past,  of  their  own 
nation.  Their  fathers  and  mothers  were  Christians  ; 
they  had  no  practical  knowledge  of  heathenism  ;  from 
America  had  come  the  teachers  and  teaching  that  had 
emancipated  them  ;   America  was  really  their  Father- 


248  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

land,  and  through  America  they  had  become  a  part  of 
that  commonwealth  which  is  greater  than  any  earthly 
empire,  which  overleaps  national  boundaries  and  is 
binding  the  nations  into  what  is  yet  to  be  a  cosmopoli- 
tan brotherhood.  In  Calcutta  and  Lucknow  I  saw 
something  of  the  great  work  that  the  American  Metho- 
dists have  accomplished ;  in  Madras  we  met  those  who 
had  had  part  in  the  wonderful  successes  among  the 
Telagus  of  the  American  Baptists  ;  in  Ahmednagar  and 
Madura  we  gloried  in  the  splendid  achievements  of  the 
American  Board ;  in  the  Arcot  Mission  we  saw  how 
fruitful  had  been  the  toil  of  the  Chamberlains  and 
Scudders.  In  Japan  we  saw  all  these  blessed  results 
repeated.  In  our  voyages  we  associated  much  with  our 
missionaries  from  Burma  and  China.  Surely,  it  is  a 
hand  of  redemption  and  healing  which  Christian  Amer- 
ica has  laid  upon  the  Far  East  and  the  Islands  of  the 
Sea.  As  we  crossed  the  waters  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal, 
they  seemed  more  sacred  when  I  remembered  that 
Adoniram  Judson  was  buried  beneath  them.  The  May- 
flower, which  brought  to  New  England  the  pioneers  of 
Christian  America,  finally  sank  off  Masulipitam  in  the 
waters  of  the  Arabian  Sea,  as  if  to  indicate  the  ultimate 
field  for  the  working  of  those  divine  forces  which  she 
first  carried  to  the  wild  New  England  shore. 

"  Laws,  freedom,  truth,  and  faith  in  God 
Go  with  our  exiles  o'er  the  waves  ;" 

and  wherever  on  pagan  shores  the  voice  of  the  American 
missionary  and  teacher  is  heard,  there  is  fulfilled  the 
manifest  destiny  of  the  Christian  Republic ;  there  are 
realized  beyond  even  their  dreams  the  prayers  of  the 
founders  of  our  nation,  one  of  whom,  Samuel  Adams, 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  249 

said  :  "  America  will  yet  give  laws  to  the  Old  World  ;  " 
and  some  such  place  as  Carver  and  Winthrop  and  Da- 
venport and  Witherspoon  and  Asbury  occupy  in  our 
annals  may  be  the  position  of  the  names  of  Goodell, 
Hamlin,  Washburn,  Jessup,  Van  Dyck,  Post,  Watson, 
Judson,  Foreman,  Scudder,  Newton,  Hume,  Fairbanks, 
Thoburn,  Ewing,  Chamberlain,  Chandler,  Downie,  Mar- 
tin, Nevins,  Happer,  Davis,  Gordon,  Hepburn,  Verbeck, 
in  the  regenerated  Asia  that  is  to  be. 

Christian  missions  have  made  a  magnificent  and  dif- 
ficult beginning  in  the  Oriental  world,  but  Christianity 
has  gone  to  Asia  to  stay.  It  erects  fortresses  and  not 
hotels ;  it  builds  of  stone,  and  not  of  canvas.  Its 
motto  is,  "  Evangelize  the  World,  though  it  takes  a 
thousand  years."  Teachers  in  Indian  Christian  colleges 
have  said  to  me  that,  "  if  we  can  form  a  Christian  con- 
science in  one  out  of  a  dozen  of  our  pupils,  we  feel  that 
we  are  doing  a  great  work."  The  best  Christian  mis- 
sionaries in  Japan  have  entirely  recovered  from  the 
folly  that  the  Japanese  churches  can  take  care  of  them- 
selves, and  dispense  in  a  very  short  time  with  Christian 
guidance  and  reinforcement  from  the  West.  With  such 
loose  ideas  in  regard  to  financial  responsibility  as  de- 
prived the  American  Board  of  its  Christian  College,  the 
Doshisha ;  with  the  childishness  and  vanity  which  pre- 
vail so  largely  among  Japanese  Christians ;  with  the 
serious  departures  of  so  many  misleaders  from  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  Divine  Christ ;  and  with  the  prevalent  absurd 
patriotism  which  seeks  rather  to  Japanize  Christianity 
than  to  Christianize  Japan,  there  is  need,  as  deep  and 
constraining  as  ever,  that  our  American  Churches  main- 
tain and  enlarge  their  work  in  the  Japanese  Archipelago. 
No,  we  must  work  and  wait  and  expect  that  our  children 


250  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

and  children's  children  may  very  likely  be  called  upon 
to  carry  on  our  labors.  I  was  urged  by  the  missionaries 
in  Japan  to  tell  the  American  churches  that  the  Island 
Empire  will  long  continue  to  need  the  guiding  hand,  the 
wise  instructions,  of  those  who  have  been  trained  in 
Christian  countries.  And  this  is  evident  when  you 
remember  that  in  some  Japanese  Presbyterian  churches 
in  the  administration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  while  bread 
and  wine  are  furnished  the  communicants,  cake  and  tea 
are  provided  for  others,  and  that  the  spirit  of  reverence 
has  hardly  dawned  upon  the  minds  of  the  native  Chris- 
tians. I  was  told  in  Honolulu  that  the  Hawaiian  Chris- 
tian, smitten  with  the  small-pox  and  expecting  to  die, 
used  to  mount  his  mule  and  ride  around  the  village  to  say 
"  Good-by  "  to  his  friends  and  neighbors !  There  may 
be  a  politeness  which  is  unwise,  and  there  may  be  a 
Christianity  in  the  Orient  which  will  need  for  genera- 
tions the  molding  intelligence  of  Western  churches. 
Missionaries  of  experience  understand  how  slow  the 
progress  in  some  communities  must  be.  They  do  not 
believe  that  entering  a  house  and  calling  out  in  broken 
Chinese,  with  the  finger  raised  toward  heaven,  "  Jesus 
loves  you.  God  is  righteous.  Prepare  for  the  day  of 
Judgment,"  is  always  carrying  the  Gospel  to  that  house- 
hold; for  a  vast  preparatory  educational  work  is  required 
to  teach  some  men  what  God  is,  what  righteousness  is, 
who  Jesus  is,  and  to  bring  home  to  the  conscience  the 
claims  of  truth.  Even  the  millenniun  has  not  perfected 
Western  Christendom.  Rudyard  Kipling  has  pictured 
the  failure  of  the  fool  who  tried  to  "  hustle  the  East." 
With  the  pressure  of  the  whole  world  upon  her  benevo- 
lence, the  Christian  part  of  Great  Britain  is  utterly  un- 
able to  meet  the  spiritual  needs  of  India ;  and  America's 


SUCCESS  OF  ASIATIC  MISSIONS  251 

obligation  to  co-operate  is  as  clear  and  dazzling  as  an 
Indian  noonday.  God  grant  that  our  eyes  may  take  in 
the  wider  vision,  and  that  our  hearts  may  be  enlarged, 
and  that,  as  we  have  freely  received,  we  may  freely  give. 
Christianity  is  the  universal  faith,  and  is  the  only  hope 
for  individual  and  national  regeneration  in  that  Asiatic 
world,  vast  with  undeveloped  possibilities. 

Let  no  one  dream  that  the  Oriental  faiths  have  life 
and  power  enough  to  prove  that  our  Gospel  is  not 
needed.  The  failures  of  the  Oriental  religions  is  now 
felt,  even  by  some  of  their  own  disciples  ;  and  I  have 
returned  from  seeing  the  best  that  the  Oriental  sys- 
tems can  do  for  their  peoples  with  my  old  convictions 
strengthened,  that  Christianity,  the  religion  of  redemp- 
tion and  enlightenment,  of  liberty,  of  progress  and 
brotherhood,  the  religion  which  alone  gives  peace  to  the 
sin-sick  heart  and  brightens  with  hope  the  future  of  in- 
dividuals and  of  peoples,  is  the  best  possession  which 
America  holds  for  herself  and  is  commissioned  to  im- 
part to  others.  Before  my  faith  the  Christian  religion 
looms  up  like  a  glorious  mountain  of  heaven.  One 
morning,  looking  out  from  my  room  in  Yokohama,  I 
saw  not  only  Mississippi  Bay  and  Treaty  Point  and 
the  ships  of  that  harbor  through  which,  a  half-century 
ago,  the  regenerating  forces  of  the  Western  world  began 
to  flow  in  upon  Japan ;  but,  looking  forty  miles  away,  I 
beheld  the  peerless  beauty  and  majesty  of  the  sacred 
mountain,  cleaving  the  blue  sky  like  a  snowy  wedge. 
And  so  Christianity  rises  before  my  imagination  and  my 
reason  as  the  bright  and  blessed  mountain  of  God. 
About  its  feet  are  fertile  farms  and  prosperous  homes, 
such  as  are  found  only  in  the  beneficent  domain  of  Chris- 
tian influence ;  in  its  heart  are  the  treasures  of  all  wis- 


252  THE  CHRISTIAN  CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

dom  and  all  knowledge ;  down  its  sides  flow  the  streams 
which  have  made  European  and  American  civilization 
possible,  and  which  are  yet  to  turn  the  moral  wilderness 
of  Asia  into  the  garden  of  the  Lord  ;  about  its  summit 
play  the  golden  splendors  of  millennial  mornings,  and  it 
dominates  all  other  systems  even  as  the  snow-white  and 
spotless  cone  of  Fuji-yama  dominates  the  islands  and 
the  seas,  the  rice-covered  plains,  and  the  forest-crowned 
hills  of  beautiful  Japan. 


INDEX 


Abdallah,  37 

Abraham,  121 

Abu  Bekr,  40,  47,  50 

Abu  Taleb,  37,  41 

Adams,  Samuel,  248 

Agnosticism,  151,  228 

Agra,  Gl,  234,  241 

Aguilar,  Grace,  18 

Ahmednagar,  61,  234,  235 

Ajmere,  61 

Akbar,  61 

Allah,  29 

Alva,  Duke  of,  44,  216 

Ameer  Ali,  Mr.  Justice,  29 

America,  ix,    xi,  35,  57,  72,  131,  141, 

142,  145,  151,  184,215,  238 
Amritsar,  61,  234 
An  am,  153 
Ananda,  169  et  seq. 
Apocrypha,  160,  161 
Apostles'  Creed,  The,  139 
Arabia,  31 
Arabic,  222 

Arbitration  Treaty,  The,  245 
Arcot,  233 
Aristotle,  111,  138 
Armenia,  28 

Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  160,  187 
Asceticism,  141,  165,  168 
Asoka,  175 
Assam,  93 
Assyria,  191 
Aurangseb,  60 


Berry,  T.  Sterling,  160,  162,  176,  181 
Bethlehem,  37,  162,  181,  223,  242 
Bhagavadgita,  88 
Bhakti-S'Astras,  97 
Bible,  The,  25,  31,  96,  97,  98,  124, 

224,  228 
Birth  Stories  of  Ceylon,  The,  160, 

163 
"Bisnitirclc    1Q7 

Bombay,  60,  65,  79,  93,  234,  247 
Borneo,  188 
Bo-Tree,  The,  165 
Brahma  and   Brahmanism,    62,    70, 

76,  82,  87,    104,   106   et  seq.,   140, 

142,   152,  160,  165,  166,  176,  230, 

233 
Brahmo  Somaj,  The,  130,  146,  151 
Briggs,  Professor  Charles  A.,  20 
British  Empire,  The,  244  et  seq. 
British  Rule   in   India,   60,  61,  64, 

136,  243,  246 
Browning,  Robert,  172 
Buckley,  Dr.  Edmund,  178 
Buddha,  GO,  159.    See  also  Gautama, 

and  Christ  and  Buddha 
Buddha  and  Buddhism,  x,  2,  3,  31, 

100,   116,  120,  125,  131,  139,  140  et 

seq.,  150  et  seq.,  194,  203,  216,  218, 

223,  224,  226-28 
Bunsen,  2 
Burke,  Edmund,  95 
Burma,  93,  150,  153 


Babu  Guru  Sen,  105 

Bangalore,  61,  74,  99,  234 

Baptists,  234 

Barrows,  Mrs.  J.  H.,  156 

Beirut,  35 

Benares,  60,  66-68,  162,  167,  233 

Bengal,  93,  233 

Bengali,  222 

Bentinck,  Lord  William,  83 


Cabeer,  74 

Caird,  Principal,  171 

Cairo,  35 

Calcutta,  1,  52,  60,  61,  70,  146,  155, 

234,  238 
California,  188 
Calvary,  2,  117,  128,  181,  223 
Canaan,  16 

Candlin,  Rev.  Mr.,  206 
Canton,  190,  216 


253 


254 


INDEX 


Cams,  Dr.  Paul,  170 

Caste,  77  et  seq. 

Castelar,  14 

Ceylon,  125,  152,  153,  156,  158,  175, 
184,  222 

Chaldea,  188 

Charles  the  Great,  52 

Chicago,  144,  216 

Chicago,  University  of,  178 

China,  ix,  xi,  141,  152,  182  et  seq., 
225,  249 

Christ  and  Buddha,  150  et  seq. 

Christian  College,  234 

Christian  Era,  The,  129,  130 

Christian  Literature  Society  of  In- 
dia, 105 

Christianity,  ix,  21,  27,  32,  36,  52, 
54,  56,  71,  87,  90,  117,  125,  129  et 
seq.,  137,  139,  140  et  seq.,  213,  217, 
228  et  seq.,  243 

Chunder  Sen,  1,  74,  79, 119 

Church  Missionary  Society,  43,  234 

Clarke,  James   Freeman,  55,  104,  203 

Coimbatore,  61 

Colombo.  153,  156  et  seq. 

Columbian  Fair,    35,  68,   70,    73,  186 

Confession  of  Faith,  144 

Confucianism,  x,  21, 120,  182  et  seq., 
223 

Confucius,  194  et  seq. 

Congo,  The,  32 

Congress,  Indian  Social,  65 

Congress,  National  Indian,  64 

Constantine,  16,  51,  175 

Constantinople,  2,  239 

Conversions,  233 

Conway,  Moncure,  87 

Cornill,  Professor,  21 

Cross,  The,  22,  115,  241 

Crusaders,  The,  17,  45 

Curzon,  Lord,  244 


Damascus,  46 

Daniel  Deronda,  13 

Darjeeling,  76,  92,  155 

Darmsteter,  James,  4,  23 

Darsanas,  111 

Darwin,  Charles,  63,  185 

David,  12,  48 

Davids,    Professor   Rhys,    155,    159, 

161,  165 
De  la  Saussaye.     See  Saussaye 
Delhi,  234 
Den  by,    Colonel,  U.  S.  Minister   to 

China,  224 
Devas,  160,  168 


Dewey,   Admiral,  x 
Dharma,  ISO 
Dharmapala,  150, 156 
Dilke,  Sir  Charles,  188 
Dispersion,  The,  15 
Disraeli,  14,  24 
Dodds,  Dr.  Marcus,  178 
Don  Carolis,  156 
Doshisha  University,  187,  249 
Duff  College,  234 
Dutch  Protestants,  53 
Dutch,  The,  156,  247 


Eakins,  Dr.  J.,  199,  205,  207 
Eastern  Church,  The,  48 
Eclecticism,  1,  137,  138,  147 
Egypt,  188 

Ellinwood,  180,  204,  236 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  132,  141 
English,  The,  215 
EschyluB,  18,  195 
Essenism,  38 
Es  Seyd  El-Bakri,  50 
Europe,  ix,  141 
Evangelism.     See  Missions 
Ezekiel,  195 
Ezra,  15 


Faber,  Dr.  G.  T.,  209 
Fairbairn,  Dr.,  171 
Fakirs,  141 

Fatherhood,  The  Divine,  172,  173 
Ferguson,  A.,  177 
Field,  Dr.  Henry  M.,  33 
Forgiveness  of  sins,  173 
Forman  College,  234 
France,  220,  247 
Frederick  the  Great,  24 
Freeman,  E.  A.,  29 
Fuji-yama,  252 


Gabriel,  40 

Galilee,  43,  223 

Gambetta,  14 

Ganges,  The,  66,  92,  169,  199 

Gautama,  140, 150, 153,  156,  157,  195, 

199.     See  also  Buddha 
Germany,  187,  220 
Gibbon,  49 
Gladstone,  29,  34,  74 
God,  54,  88,  95,  101,  129,  143,  166, 

211 


INDEX 


255 


Goethe,  13,  164 

Golden  Rule,  202,  208 

Good  and  Evil,  135 

Gordon,  Dr.  George  A.,  103,  111,  120 

Gospels,   The,  7,  8,  21,  26,  72,  125, 

130,  134,  146,  147,  175  et  seq.,  186, 

215,  217,  222  et  seq. 
Gottheil,  Rabbi,  8 
Grant,  General,  190 
Grant,   Principal,    42,    56,  108,    166, 

173,  195,  198,  202,  205,  213 
"  Granth,  The,"  82 
Great  Britain,  187 
Greek  Church,  The,  51 
Green,  Professor  W.  H.,  28 
Griffis,  Dr.  W.  E.,  96 


Hagar,  19,  30,  31 

Haniflfs,  38 

Hardy,  Spence,  160 

Haskell  Lectures,  237 

Hawaii,  240,  250 

Hebrew  Prophecy,  20,  96 

Hebrew  Scriptures,  21 

Hegel,  104 

Hegira,  The,  41 

Heine,  14 

Herder,  18 

Hilaire,  St.,  179 

Hillel,  203 

Himalayas,  61,  158,  169,  242 

Hindostan,  242 

Hindu  Christians,  235 

Hinduism,  x,  3,  21,  122  et  seq.,  131, 

136  et  seq.,  143-44,   150,  157,  168, 

218,  224,  225,  228-31,  242 
Hinduism,  Philosophic,  93  et  seq. 
Hinduism,  Popular,  61  et  seq. 
Holland,  246 
Holy  Ghost,  The,  48 
Holy  Land,  The,  14,  45,  90 
Homer,  133 
Hong-Kong,  152,  183 
Hongwanji,  The  Eastern,  226 
Hopkins,  Professor,  163, 164,  168 
Hume,  Dr.  Robert  A.,  235 
Hyacinthe,  Pore,  3o 


Idolatry,   18,  40,  49,  68,  79,  81, 

155,  194,  211,  233 
Iliad,  The,  133 

Incarnation,  109,  113,  114  et  seq. 
India,  ix,  60  et  seq.,  136,   142,   146, 

14S,  153,  155,  184,  188,  223,  224, 

227  et  seq. 


Indian  Social  Reformer,  The,  224 

Indore,  61,  234 

Indore,  Maharajah  of,  246 

Inquisition,  The,  17 

Isaiah,  15 

Ishmael,  30,  49 

Islam,  ix,  6,  27  et  seq.,  60,  218,  225, 

228 
Israel,  4,  8,  14,  24,  101 


Jains,  The,  100 

James,  St.,  133 

Japan  and  the  Japanese,  ix,  152, 
153,  154,  157,  182  et  seq.,  217,  222, 
225,  233,  238  et  seq. 

Japanese  Presbyterians,  250 

Java,  32,  153 

Jehovah,  126  et  seq. 

Jeremiah,  195 

Jernegan,  Consul-General,  234 

Jerusalem,  3,  19 

Jesuits,  194 

Jesus  Christ,  ix,  3,  7,  31,  36,  43,  58, 
73,  114,  120,  133,  139,  130,  134, 
147,  148,  154,  159,  161,  165,  167  et 
seq.,  177,  204,  219,  223,  225  et  seq.t 
229,  235 

Jews,  The,  5  et  seq. 

Jeypore,  61 

Johnson,  F.,  203,  209 

Jordan,  The,  169 

uJoss,"  191 

Judaism,  22  et  seq. 

Judas  Maccabeus,  15 

Judson,  Adoniram,  248,  250 

Jumna,  242 

Justinian,  33 


Kali,  112 

Kali  Cham  Banerje,  33 

Kanarese,  222 

Kandy,  157  et  seq. 

Kapilavastu,  163,  169,  180 

Karma,  135,174 

Kasba,  37 

Kellogg,  Dr.,  168 

Keshub,  Chunder  Sen.    See  Chunder 

Sen 
Khadijeh,  40 
Khartoum,  53 
Kinchinjunga,  61,  339 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  217 
Kipling,  Rudyard,  60,  244,  250 
Knox,  John,  153 


256 


INDEX 


Kobe,  184 

Kong-Foo-Tsze.    See  Confucius 

Koran,  The,  31,  35,  36,  38,  40,  47  et 

seq.,  55,  56,  57 
Korea.  153 
Koresh,  37,  40 
Krishna,  86,  112,  231 
Kubla  Khan,  90 
Kuenen,  Professor,  38,  54,  159 
Kutho  Daw,  The,  175 
Kwai,  Mr.    Secretary,  193 
Kyoto,  12,  186,  226 


Lahore,  61,  63,  234 

Lalita,  Vistara,  160 

Lamb,  Charles,  192 

Lao  Tse,  196  et  seq.,  202,  211 

Lawrence,  Dr.,  52,  55,  188,  191 

Lazarus,  Miss,  13 

Legge,  Dr.  J.,  197,  200,  201,  207 

Liberia,  35 

"Light  of  Asia,  The,"  76,  159,    160 

Li  Hung  Chang,  189 

London  Mansion  House  Relief  Fund, 

190 
Loo,  194 

Lord's  Prayer,  The,  219 
Louis  XL,  50 
Louis  XIV.,  51 
Lowell,  J.  R,  237 
Lucknow,  233,  234,  248 
Luther,  153 


Macattlay,  Lord,  61,  69,  113 
MacColl,  Commodore,  29 
McKenzie,  Sir  Alexander,  224 
Madras,  43,  61,  63,  73,  93,  224,  234, 

243 
Madura,  62,  81 
Mahabharata,  97 

Maba  Bod  hi  Gaya  Society,  The,  150 
Mahadeva,  112 

Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta,  177 
Maia,  162 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  119 
Malay  Peninsula,  32 
Mandalay,  175 
Mandeville,  Sir  John,  187 
Mara,  163 
Marathi,  222,  247 
Marco  Polo,  187 
M artel,  Charles,  45 
Martin,  Dr.  VV.  A.  P. ,  214 
Mathison,  198,  206,  211,  212 


Mecca,  27,  32,  35,  40,  41,  43 

Mediation,  134 

Medina,  41,  42 

Mendelssohn,  Moses,  21 

Mendes,  12 

Menu,  63,  77,  97,  106 

Messiah,  20,  22 

Messianic  Prophecy,  20 

Methodists,  234,  248 

Miller,  Dr.  William,  101 

Miracles,  163 

Mission  and  Missionaries,  ix,  35,  36, 

51,  52,  61,  62,  75,  81,  89,  118  et  seq., 

188,  202,  208,  214,  216  et  seq.,  222 

etseq.,  231  et  &eq.,  242,  249  J 
Mississippi  Bay,  251 
Mohammed,  30,  36  et  seq.,  54 
Mohammedanism,  x,  30,  31,  33,  57, 

74,  102,  120,  132, 136,  140,  145,  156, 

203,  222.     See  also  Islam 
Monotheism,  228 
Mormonism,  133 
Moslem.     See  Mohammedanism  and 

Islam 
Mount  Hira,  39 

Mozoomdar,  93,  116,  146  et  seq.,  150 
Mailer,  Max,  21,  85,  89,  95,  109, 175 
Mussulmans,  29,  33.     See  Islam  and 

Mohammedanism 


Nanak,  75 

Napoleon,  51 

"  Nathan  the  Wise,"  13 

Nazareth,  37,  162,  180 

Neo-Platonism,  138 

Nepaul,  153 

Nestorian  Missions,  213 

New  Testament,  25,  38,  56,  84,  131, 

136,  175,  197,  232 
Nirvana,  154,  167,  169,  170,  174 
Norman,  Henry,  189 
Nouri,  Prince,  61 


Oberammergau,  21 

Olcutt,  Colonel,  63 

Oldenburg,  160 

Old  Testament,  21,  25,  38,  56 

Om,  76 

Or  us,  15 

Osiris,  15 

Ottoman  Empire,  28,  30 

Oudh,  93 

Oxford,  175 


INDEX 


257 


Palamcottah,  G3,  80 

Palestine,  180 

Pali,  150,  175 

Pariahs,  ill 

Parliament    of  Religions,  xiii,  100, 

103,  137,  193,  303,  308,  230 
Parsiism,  1,  183 
Patna,  Council  of,  159 
Paul,  St.,  33,  129,  133,  135,  14-1,  303, 

213 
Peking,  187 

Peking,  University  of,  185,  314 
Perry,  Commodore,  184 
Persia,  5,  58 
Philippine  Islands,  188 
Pitakas,  175 
Plato,  111,  130,  138,  181 
Polygamy,  44,  83,  83 
Poona,  01,  135,  339 
Portuguese,  156,  191,  246 
Prayer  Book,  The,  46 
Prayer  Wheel,  155 
Presbyterian  General  Assembly,  335 
Presbyterians,  144,  146 
Prideaux,  36 
Pundits,  68,  98 
Pung  Quang  Yu,  192,  202,  214 
Punjab,  82,  93,  322,  233 
Puranas,  97,  110 
Pythagoras,  195 


Ramabai  the  Pundita,  234 
Ramayuna,  97,  333 
Ram,  Mohun  Roy,  74 
Ranade,  Mr.  Justice,  83 
Redemption,  143,  145 
Reed,  Rev.  Gilbert,  214 
Reid  College,  334 
Reincarnation,  143,  160,  163,  167 
Renan,  87,  46 
Renunciation,  164 
Revelation,  133,  134 
Reville,  Albert,  154,  187 
Richards,  Rev.  Timothy,  219 
Ripon,  Bishop  of,  213 
liobert  College,  50 
Rome,  3,  6,  138,  148,  199 
Rome,  Church  of,  48,  51 


Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  146, 

161,  175  et  seq. 
Saigon,  153 
Sakyas,  163 
Salvation,  33,  33,  121,  128,  131,  142 


Samangala,  156 

Sungha,  180 

Sankara,  111 

Sanskrit,  156,  160,  175 

Saussaye,  de  la,  198,  201 

Schall,  214 

Schroeder,  Dr.,  174 

Scriptures,  The,  4,  47,  98,  109,  133, 

139,  133.     See  also  Old  and  New 

Testament 
"  Sea  Voyage  Movement,"  65 
Self-torture,  1(55 
Sell,  Rev.  Edward,  43 
Shamai,  203 
Shamanism,  154,  198 
Shanghai,  152,  183,  315,  224 
Shan-Tung,  194 
Shastras,  105 
Shinto,  1,  153 
Siam,  153 
Siberians,  2 

Siddartha,  162  et  seq.,  179 
Sikhism,  1,  61,  82,  94,  133 
Sinai,  2,  12,  203 
Singapore,  184,  341 
Singhalese,  158,  161 
Siva,  65,  76,  85,  104 
Skepticism,  77 
Smith,  Rev.  Arthur,  308 
Smith,  Henry  Preserved,  38 
Smith,  Professor  Robertson,  8 
Socrates,  131,  138,  171 
Southgate,  Bishop,  50 
Spinoza,  25 
Stanley,  Dean,  110 
St.  Steven's  College,  234 
Sudra,  77 
Sumatra,  188 
Sunday,  132 

Swami  Vivakananda,  68,  76,  87 
Syrian  Christians,  61,  66 


Taj  Mahal,  211 

Tamil,  158,  223 

Tantras,  97 

Taoism,  1,  154,  194,  197  et  seq. 

Tartar  Dynasty,  311 

Tartary,  154 

Telugus,  The,  334,  248 

Tertullian,  139 

Theism,  140,  147 

Theosophy,  150 

Thibet,  158,  155 

Tinnevelly,  Bishop  of,  233 

Titus,  15,  16 

Tolerance,  136 


258 


INDEX 


Torah,  24 

Torquemada,  17,  44 

Total  Abstinence,  53 

Transmigration,  62.  See  also  Rein- 
carnation 

Travancore,  Maharajah  of,  108  et  seq. 

Treaty  Point,  251 

Turkish  Empire.  See  Ottoman  Em- 
pire 


Washburn,  Du.,  50 
Way  land,  Dr.  P.,  223 
Wellhausen,  Professor,  38 
Wesley  College,  157,  234 
Widows,  82  et  seq. 
Williams,  Sir  Monier,  96,  161 
Wilson  College,  234 
Womanhood,  82,  117,  234 
Wordsworth,  192 


Upanishads,  104,  110,  111 


Vatican,  The,  49 

Vedas,  61,  87,  88  et  seq.,  93. 107,  109, 

166,  242 
Vellore,  61 

Vicarious  Atonement,  115,  129,  131 
Vishnu,  65,  76,  114,  152 
Vyasa,  111 


YANG-tSE,  183,  190 
Yen,  Rev.  Mr.  Y.  K.,  207 
Yogas,  165 
Yokohama,  251 
Yokoi,  Rev.  Mr.,  187 


Zetd,  40 
Zion,  19 


Zbc  flDorse  QLectures  for  1898 
THE    CHRISTIAN    CONQUEST  OF  ASIA 

Studies  and  Personal  Observations  of  Oriental 

Religions 

By  JOHN   HENRY   BARROWS,  D.D. 

12mo,  $1 .50 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS,   PUBLISHERS 


Contents  : — I.  Beginning  at  Jerusalem  ;  or  Christianity  and  Juda- 
ism,— n.  The  Cross  and  the  Crescent  in  Asia. — III.  Observations  of 
Popular  Hinduism. — IV.  Philosophic  Hinduism. — V.  Some  Difficulties 
in  the  Hindu  Mind  in  Regard  to  Christianity. — VI.  Christianity  and 
Buddhism. — VII.  Confucianism,  and  the  Awakening  of  China. — VIII. 
Success  of  Asiatic  Missions  :  America's  Responsibility  to  the  Orient. 

Dr.  Barrows's  book  gives  an  account  of  the  results  achieved  by  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  Asia  during  this  century.  The  exact 
religious  condition  of  the  Asia  of  to-day  is  clearly  detailed  ;  and  a  hope- 
ful forecast  is  given  with  regard  to  the  continuance  of  the  work  already 
auspiciously  begun  in  the  Far  East. 


Uhc  tfDorse  ^Lectures  for  1895 

THE  WHENCE  AND  THE  WHITHER  OF 

MAN 

A  Brief  History   of  his   Origin   and   Development, 
through  Conformity  to  Environment 

By  JOHN   M.   TYLER 

Professor  of  Biology,  Amherst  College 
1  2mo,  3  1  2  pp.,  $  1 .75 

Contents: — Introduction. — I.  The  Problem  :  The  Mode  of  its  Solu- 
tion.— II.  Protozoa  to  Worms  :  Cells,  Tissues,  and  Organs. — III.  Worms 
to  Vertebrates :  Skeleton  and  Head. — IV.  Vertebrates:  Backbone  and 
Brain. — V.  The  History  of  Mental  Development  and  its  Sequence  of 
Functions. — VI.  Natural  Selection  and  Environment. — VII.  Conformity 
to  Environment— VIII.  Man.— IX.  The  Teachings  of  the  Bible.— X. 
Present  Aspect  of  the  Theory  of  Evolution. — Chart  showing  Sequence 
of  Attainments  and  of  Dominant  Functions. — Phylogenetic  Chart  of  the 
Animal  Kingdom. — Index. 

"  It  is  thoroughly  strong  and  able,  and  in  a  perspicuous  way  presents  the  doctrine 
of  evolution  in  its  relation  to  man  in  his  social,  moral,  and  religious  nature.  To  the 
question  'Whence?'  the  author  answers,  as  all  evolutionists  do,  'Protoplasm';  to 
the  question  '  Whither'  his  reply  is,  '  Everything  points  to  a  spiritual  end  in  animal 
evolution.'  The  whole  discussion  is  calm  and  evidently  in  the  interest  of  truth 
rather  than  of  tradition."  —  The  Outlook. 


Hbe  /iDorse  ^Lectures  for  1S04 
THE     RELIGIONS     OF    JAPAN 

From  the  Dawn  of  History  to  the 
Era  of  the  Meiji 

By  WILLIAM    ELLIOT    GRIFFIS,  D.D. 

Formerly  of  the  Imperial  University  of  Tokio;  Author  of  "The  Mikado's  Empire" 

and  " Corea,  the  Hermit  Nation" 

1  2mo,  4-57  pp.,  $2.00 

Contents  : — I.  Primitive  Faith  :  Religion  before  Books. — II.  Shinto  : 
Myths  and  Ritual. —  III.  The  Kojiki  and  its  Teachings. —  IV.  The 
Chinese  Ethical  System  in  Japan. — V.  Confucianism  in  its  Philosophical 
Form. — VI.  The  Buddhism  of"  Northern  Asia. — VII.  Riyobu,  or  Mixed 
Buddhism. — VIII.  Northern  Buddhism  in  its  Doctrinal  Evolutions. — 
IX.  The  Buddhism  of  the  Japanese. — X.  Japanese  Buddhism  in  its 
Missionary  Development. — XI.  Roman  Christianity  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century. — XII.  Two  Centuries  of  Silence. —  Notes,  Authorities,  and 
Illustrations. — Index. 

"The  book  is  excellent  throughout,  and  indispensable  to  the  religious  student." — 
The  A  tlantic  Monthly. 

"To  any  one  desiring  a  knowledge  of  the  development  and  ethical  status  of  the 
East,  this  book  will  prove  of  the  utmost  assistance,  and  Dr.  Griffis  may  be  thanked 
for  throwing  a  still  greater  charm  about  the  Land  of  the  Rising  Sun." 

—  The  Churchman. 


Ufoe  rt&orse  lectures  tor  t893 

THE    PLACE   OF   CHRIST    IN    MODERN 

THEOLOGY 

By  A.  M.  FAIRBAIRN,  M.A.,  D.D. 

Principal  of  Mansfield  College,  Oxford 
Svo,  556  pp.,  $2.50 

SUMMARY 

Introduction.— THE.   RETURN   TO  CHRIST. 
Book   I. — Historical  and  Critical. 

Division  I. — The   Law  of  Development  in  Theology  and  the 

Church. 
Division  II. — Historical  Criticism  and  the  History  of  Christ. 
Book  II. — Theological  and  Constructive. 

Division  I. — The  New  Testament  Interpretation  of  Christ. 
Division  II. — Christ  the  Interpretation  of  God. 
Division  III.  — A.  God  as  Interpreted  by  Christ  the  Determinative 

Principle  in  Theology. 
B.  God  as  Interpreted  by  Christ  the  Determinative 
Principle  in  the  Church. 

"  One  of  the  most  valuable  and  comprehensive  contributions  to  theology  that  has 
been  made  during  this  generation." — London  Spectator. 

"  Suggestive,  stimulating,  and  a  harbinger  of  the  future  catholic  theology." 

—  Boston  Literary  World. 
"An  important  contribution  to  theological  literature." — London  Times. 


tlfoe  JElg  Xectures  for  1897 
THE   BIBLE   AND   ISLAM!   OR, 

The  Influence  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  on 
the  Religion  of  Mohammed 

By  HENRY   PRESERVED   SMITH,  D.D. 

1  2mo,  319  pp.,  $1.50 

CONTENTS 

I.  The  Apostle  of  Allah.  VI.  Revelation  and  Prophecy. 

II.  The  Common  Basis  in  Heathenism.  VII.  Sin  and  Salvation. 

III.  The  Koran  Narratives.  VIII.  The  Service  of  God. 

IV.  The  Doctrine  of  God.  IX.  The  Future  Life. 
V.  The  Divine  Government.  X.  Church  and  State. 

"We  should  be  inclined  to  regard  this  volume  as  perhaps  the  very 
best  for  one  who  desired  to  get  a  clear  understanding  of  the  doctrines 
rather  than  of  the  practical  workings  of  Mohammedanism." 

—  The  Outlook. 

"  The  general  reader  will  not  meet  with  a  more  complete  compendium 
of  the  religious  teachings  of  the  Prophet  of  Arabia." 

— New  York  Commercial  Advertiser. 


Zbe  Elg  ^Lectures  for  1891 

ORIENTAL    RELIGIONS    AND 
CHRISTIANITY 

A  Course  of  Lectures  Delivered  Before  the  Students  of 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York 

By    FRANK    F.    ELLINWOOD,    D.D. 

Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions. 
1  2mo,  384  pp.,  $1 .75 

CONTENTS 

I.  The  Need  of  Understanding  the  False  Religions. 
II.  The   Methods  of  the  Early  Christian  Church  in   Dealing  with 
Heathenism. 

III.  The  Successive  Developments  of  Hinduism. 

IV.  The  Bhagavad  Gita  and  the  New  Testament. 
V.   Buddhism  and  Christianity. 

VI.  Mohammedanism  Past  and  Present. 
VII.  The  Traces  of  a  Primitive  Monotheism. 

VIII.  Indirect  Tributes  of  Heathen   Systems  to  the  Doctrines  of  the 
Bible. 
IX.  Ethical  Tendencies  of  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  Philosophies. 
X.  The  Divine  Supremacy  of  the  Christian  Faith. 


THE   ELY  LECTURES 


"  The  special  value  of  this  volume  is  in  its  careful  differentiation  of  the 
schools  of  religionists  in  the  East,  and  the  distinct  points  of  antagonism 
of  the  very  fundamental  ideas  of  Oriental  religions  toward  the  religion 
of  Jesus.  " — Outlook. 

"  A  more  instructive  book  has  not  been  issued  for  years." 

— New  York  Observer. 

"  The  author  has  read  widely,  reflected  carefully,  and  written  ably." 

—  Congregationalist. 

''It  is  a  book  which  we  can  most  heartily  commend  to  every  pastor 
and  to  every  intelligent  student,  of  the  work  which  the  Church  is  called 
to  do  in  the  world." — The  Missionary. 


Xlbe  JElv  Xectures  for  1890 

THE    EVIDENCE    OF    CHRISTIAN 

EXPERIENCE 

By  LEWIS   FRENCH   STEARNS,  D.D. 

I2mo,  473  pp.,  $2.00 

CONTENTS 

I.  The  Evidences  of  To-day. 
II.   Philosophical  Presuppositions — Theistic. 

III.  Philosophical  Presuppositions — Anthropological. 

IV.  The  Genesis  of  the  Evidence. 
V.  The  Growth  of  the  Evidence. 

VI.  The  Verification  of  the  Evidence. 
VII.   Philosophical  Objections. 
VIII.  Theological  Objections. 
IX.   Relation  to  other  Evidences. 
X.  Relation  to  other  Evidences — Conclusion. 

"  His  presentation  of  the  certainty,  reality,  and  scientific  character  of 
the  facts  in  a  Christian  consciousness  is  very  strong." — The  Lutheran. 

"  An  important  contribution  to  the  library  of  apologetics." 

— Living  Church. 

'*  A  good  and  useful  work." — The  Churchman. 

"  The  tone  and  spirit  which  pervade  them  are  worthy  of  the  theme, 
and  the  style  is  excellent.  There  is  nothing  of  either  cant  or  pedantry 
in  the  treatment.  There  is  simplicity,  directness,  and  freshness  of 
manner  which  strongly  win  and  hold  the  reader." — Chicago  Advance. 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

153-157   FIFTH   AVENUE,   NEW   YORK 


Date  Due 


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The  Christian  conquest  of  Asia; 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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